Film Review: American Hustle (2013)

There's a scene in David O. Russell's previous film, Silver Linings Playbook, in which all the major figures in Pat Solitano's (Bradley Cooper) life finally collide in one room. His feisty dance partner/love interest, his parents and one of his best friends are all thrown together so that they can hash out their differences, and gradually reach a point from which they can progress to the finale. It's a crucial scene, one that shuffles all the different relationships and fundamentally changes the stakes of the story, but it's also the worst scene in the entire movie; it lacks any particular focus, and feels like the early stages of an improv session in which the actors are trying to find their way to a conclusion. It has plenty of energy, but it's energy that is being fired off in every direction at once.

Oscar Predictions: The Major Awards

Welcome back. I trust that you're all sitting comfortably and are as uproariously drunk as I am. How anyone could even contemplate making it through an awards ceremony sober is truly beyond me. Anyway, that's not important. What is important, is that we're now down to the final, precious few; the Oscars that most people care about! Without any further ado, let's get to it.

Film Review: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, apart from having one of the most pointlessly awkward titles in recent memory, is in effect two separate films. On the one hand, it's a comedy-drama about two very pretty, slightly crazy people coming to know each other and maybe figuring out how to be better together, and on the other, a sports movie in which those characters have to train for a big competition. Neither of those two films is terrible by any means, but they are so clumsily grafted together that it winds up being the cinematic equivalent of a set of shelves that have been built without the use of a spirit level. It functions well enough, but everything is uneven to the detriment of the whole and to no discernible purpose.

Film Review: The Beaver (2011)

When it was released in the Spring of 2011, Jodie Foster’s The Beaver – a title which is kept from being a crude double entendre thanks only to that one tiny definitive article – was overwhelmed and obliterated by the controversy surrounding its star, Mel Gibson, and vile remarks he made to his ex-girlfriend which were recorded and disseminated online. Whilst it would be disingenuous and wrong-headed to try to excuse Gibson’s actions, it’s a shame that a film as idiosyncratic and distinct as The Beaver was overshadowed by his actions. It’s unlikely that it would have found a particularly huge audience had it been released sans controversy, but it would have had a better chance to become something other than a footnote in a troubled actor's career.

Film Review: The Hunger Games (2012)

Adapted from the phenomenally successful book by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games takes place in a future North America which has been ravaged and reshaped by natural disasters and war. In this terrible new world, the continent has been divided up into twelve districts which are ruled over by a decadent and tyrannical Capitol. In order to enforce its dominance, and as punishment for the uprising which occurred 74 years earlier, every year the districts must offer up two "tributes" to take part in the titular games: a fight to the death which is filmed for the entertainment of the Capitol, and as a reminder to the Districts that they live only because the Capitol allows them to do so. After her younger sister's name is drawn during the annual "Reaping" ceremony, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take her place, and alongside her fellow tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) she must find a way to survive the Games, in the process setting in motion events that will drastically alter the world as they know it.