Though not without its flaws, David O. Russell’s latest film is a treat, primarily thanks to its tremendous cast. Watching Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, and an excellent supporting cast play off one another to terrifically rich, endlessly entertaining effect is one of the year’s great cinematic pleasures, while the film also offers a fun and engaging story, and conjures just enough dramatic poignancy to give it all some real weight.
Hustle is maybe a tad too much of an homage to other filmmakers and styles – Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas, in particular – to be praised above many of the more original accomplishments of the year, but taken as the enormous slice of entertainment riches it sets out to provide, American Hustle is a blast. And no film this year had better hair.
American Hustle is now playing in theatres everywhere.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy seemed like an impossible act to follow, and yet, here we have Anchorman 2, every bit as outrageously funny as the first film, but with an additional satirical edge that is sharp, fierce, and compelling. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have chosen to take the awfulness of Ron Burgundy to the Nth-degree, casting him as the cause for the inanity of the 24-hour news cycle, and as funny as it is to see Burgundy and his team burn the fourth estate to the ground, the material is also deeply shaking, because the further Ron Burgundy plunges into birthing the characteristics of modern ‘news’ networks, the more his crazy, unhinged, lunatic world looks like the one we live in now.
Anchorman 2 is now playing in theatres everywhere. Read my full review of the film here and check out our interview with the cast in the video below.
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