Set in the 30s, it follows three friends who witness a murder, become suspects themselves, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.
For all that Amsterdam tells a truly amazing story, features an incredible all-star cast, and is directed by one of the most celebrated directors of recent years, more has been made of the behind-the-scenes drama than the film itself. Specifically, a whirlwind of controversy has surrounded writer and director David O. Russell. His notoriously bad behaviour on set has “suddenly” been noticed by the press and the industry alike, despite having been an entirely open secret since his very first film. Much like how five years ago, most industry people “suddenly” decided that they regretted working with Woody Allen because of certain scandals that everyone and their grandmother have known about since they were a huge deal in the press way back in the early 1990s.
Russell, who has constantly and consistently worked with the biggest and best actors on the planet, is known for being incredibly abusive to the cast and crew on all his film sets (and allegedly off, as well), but somehow these very same casts and crews are quick to sign up to work with him over and over again. Along with all the inevitable clutching of pearls, people have rightly wondered why and how Russell hasn’t just kept working but continues working with some of the biggest names in the business, many of them repeatedly. And I, for one, wonder how it is that Russell keeps getting away with murder when Joss Whedon has effectively been cancelled for his now infamous, but arguably tamer, behaviour on the sets of Buffy and Justice League.
This probably says a lot about Hollywood hypocrisy and how whether you believe cancel culture exists in the real world or not, in La La Land, it’s clearly – and perhaps appropriately – all just smoke and mirrors. Just ask Mel Gibson and the SEVEN films he released last year.
The whole David O. Russell affair is a super interesting case study on the weird morality of modern-day Hollywood, a culture that’s more interested in looking good than being good. So much attention has been paid to the man and not the film in this case because, well, the film is nowhere near as good as it should have been. And it should have been really, really good.
Not just because it’s written and directed by someone who made such deserved critical and commercial hits as Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Fighter. Or that it’s shot by one of the very best in the business (Emmanuel Lubezki), or that it has a truly jaw-droppingly great cast. But because the story it’s telling is wild, timely, and so utterly unbelievable that it can only be – and apparently is, mostly – true. Yet, while an awful lot of it is indeed really, really good, the whole is an awful lot less satisfying than its constituent parts.
Obviously, regardless of everything else, a cast that includes, just in supporting roles, the likes of Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldaña, Chris Rock, and Robert bloody De Niro (among many others), was never going to let the side down, and they certainly don’t. The performances are pretty much all very mannered, so they’re never going to go down as anyone involved’s best work, but they are also never any less than thoroughly engaging and, more often than not, tons of fun. Christian Bale, especially, gets plenty to work with, playing someone who is both goofy and yet tremendously human in his underlying melancholy.
The problem also certainly doesn’t lie with the overall plot. It starts with a very unexpected murder and ends as an insane conspiracy to depose President Roosevelt and replace him, entirely undemocratically, with a strongman ala Mussolini or Hitler. It’s a remarkable true story that would almost be unbelievable if not for it, ya know, being mirrored with frightening accuracy by the events at the American capitol on 6 January last year.
The film also certainly isn’t lacking in style, as it evokes the period beautifully, with Lubezki’s sepia-tinged cinematography giving the whole thing the authentic feel of a moment in time captured and preserved for rediscovery decades later.
The problem, though, is Russell himself. It’s not for nothing that he had largely avoided personal controversy when he was pumping out such sterling work as something like Silver Linings Playbook and that it’s only now that he has come under such intense fire. He’s never been above cocksure self-indulgence in his films before. American Hustle is many things, but restrained isn’t one of them – but he has seldom so thoroughly lost control of his creation as he does here. Though, the way he loses control is, if nothing else, quite interesting.
His script, for example, certainly isn’t lacking in incident or wit, but it is terribly unfocused. One of the more common criticisms levelled at the film is that it tells too many stories at once. But that’s not quite it since, effectively, only two stories are being told here. One: our heroes stumbling on this deadly fascist conspiracy, two: the story of their friendship and, for two of them, their romance – but they just never quite fit together as well as they should.
But even if the script could be tighter, the biggest problem here clearly lies somewhere between the direction and editing. It’s not just the wonky pacing but that it forever feels like none of it lands the way it’s supposed to. It’s like a song with a beautifully formed melody played over a rhythm section that can’t keep even basic time. It’s why it comes this close to being thrilling but ends up boring instead; this close to being moving, this close to being funny, this close to being romantic, but just… isn’t.
More than anything, the film feels an awful lot like a Coen Brothers movie written and directed by someone who just doesn’t quite have their deft touch or, frankly, prodigious talent. Not that there isn’t plenty of talent involved, but that the talent just isn’t quite up to the task of tackling so unwieldy a story. More’s the pity because this is one story that truly deserves only the very best.
Cast: Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor-Joy, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Zoe Saldaña, Timothy Olyphant, Michael Shannon, Chris Rock
Our rating: 3/5 Stars
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
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