Capsule reviews: American Hustle and District 9
American Hustle: The first trailer I saw for this film gave me three impressions: caper flick, late '70s era (look at those clothes! that hair! listen to that music!), amazing cast. All three were correct, but none got to the core of the film. It's a semi-fictionalized retelling of Abscam, the FBI operation set up to take down state and federal officials for corruption in New Jersey. Our heroes are a couple of con artists (Christian Bale and Amy Adams) who, in exchange for immunity, work with the feds to get at, first, the Mayor of Camden and then much bigger fish. But like any good flick, there are people at the center of this story, complicated, sloppy people, and with this cast, they are real and desperate and fabulous. I want to see Bale (who I didn't recognize until halfway through the movie) get nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Irving Rosenfeld, the con man at the heart of this story, a guy with heart, desperation, and a . . . challenging wife (Jennifer Lawrence), but everyone in this movie is just stellar. Lawrence as the self-absorbed Long Island housewife, Renner as the honest yet clueless mayor, and Bradley Cooper as the over-ambitious federal agent are all terrific. And there's an uncredited cameo by an actor of some stature who appears as a mob boss you don't mess with, an actor almost incapable of giving a bad performance. Great flick and well worth seeing.
District 9: I missed this film when it first came out, despite everyone I knew talking about it for the terrific science fiction movie it is. I finally rented it last week. Set in Johannesberg, it's filmed documentary-style and takes place in a world where a million or so aliens are stranded on Earth and corralled into a township situation. When the government determines that the refugees must be moved, the official in charge of the operation gets contaminated with alien stuff. As he discovers what's happening to him as a result, secrets about an escape attempt come to light and the race, the chase is on. The movie is everything that everyone has been saying it is: original, harrowing, absolutely brilliant. Sharlto Copley commits himself fully to playing Wikurs, the man in trouble, and he's terrific. But sharing the spotlight here is the creation of this world and the aliens at the heart of the conflict. It's such good stuff. I'm so glad I finally saw it.
District 9: I missed this film when it first came out, despite everyone I knew talking about it for the terrific science fiction movie it is. I finally rented it last week. Set in Johannesberg, it's filmed documentary-style and takes place in a world where a million or so aliens are stranded on Earth and corralled into a township situation. When the government determines that the refugees must be moved, the official in charge of the operation gets contaminated with alien stuff. As he discovers what's happening to him as a result, secrets about an escape attempt come to light and the race, the chase is on. The movie is everything that everyone has been saying it is: original, harrowing, absolutely brilliant. Sharlto Copley commits himself fully to playing Wikurs, the man in trouble, and he's terrific. But sharing the spotlight here is the creation of this world and the aliens at the heart of the conflict. It's such good stuff. I'm so glad I finally saw it.