This week I also saw American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street. I won't be saying too much about them and figured I'd condense it down into one post because both are up for a bunch of awards at the Oscars and everyone is talking about them. So I figured with this post I'd just write down my general thoughts on both movies.
First up, American Hustle
I had an absolute blast with American Hustle. I make it a point to not watch trailers for movies after the first initial one unless it's playing in a theater (because then I can't avoid it) as I like being surprised by movies and not knowing every detail going in. So the trailer I saw for this movie was the initial one with just Christian Bale's speech to Bradley Cooper about who the real artist is if a forger can make an exact copy of a piece of art. So going in I thought it would have some sort of art forgery angle to the movie and was a little disappointed when that's hardly touched on in the film. However, I thought the film was fantastic. It was humorous and fun, and felt smart, and what I mean by that is the "hustles" that the characters pull off felt like they could actually do them based on their back stories, not just because the plot requires it. For contrast, my examples are the Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr. Those films don't have writers that are as smart as the character of Sherlock Holmes is to be written, so when he solves a case it feels like he pulls it out of mid-air because they weren't able to write up to his intelligence level.
Going in I had heard reviews stating that they felt the film dragged and felt overly long, while The Wolf of Wall Street is longer but people are generally riveted the entire run time. I do say I agree with that consensus. American Hustle felt long. In the last third I had realized the film had been playing for a long time and was waiting for them to wrap it up. For me however, the length was not a problem for me plot wise. The movie felt like it needed a certain amount of time to set up and pay off each hustle. The problem I had instead was that I thought the character development scenes could have been shorter once we're past the first hour. I felt like once we hit the middle of the movie a lot of character interaction scenes go on a minute or two too long. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, it's actors, it's music choices and especially the hairdos.
Next - The Wolf of Wall Street
I love Martin Scorsese, and I enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio. I love every movie they make together. The Wolf of Wall Street is no exception. A movie that pushes boundaries of what can be considered appropriate for R rated films. It's a gloriously raunchy tale of excess. The cast all around is once again great. I had never heard of Margot Robbie before this film and now I absolutely adore her. Leo turns in another fantastic performance, and goes a lot further than I would have expected him to go. Jonah Hill I didn't find as amazing as a lot of critics are saying, but I think he turned in a solid performance.
The movie is long, and it has loads of nudity and drug use and explicit language. But The Wolf of Wall Street is a tale about ultimate excess. It helped to sell the image you needed of Jordan Belfort, that he was so filthy rich he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I enjoyed the majority of the song choices, especially Scorsese's penchant for the Blues. I noticed a lot of Howlin' Wolf in this thing, which is always appreciated. Though at times the sound editing was distracting for me. There seemed to be this odd sound editing choice for the first half of the movie that would play some sort of high-energy pop song and right as it crescendos immediately switch to a Blues song. It felt out of place and took me out of the movie a couple times because of how unsmooth it was. This movie felt long to me too, but I was entertained the whole time. I never felt bored. Not having done any research on the real life Belfort before, I knew he had to eventually get his comeuppance, but I didn't know the twists and turns the story would take leading up to that and it was so ridiculously excessive I couldn't wait to see what was next. I saw some critics saying the film was glorifying Belfort's lifestyle and making it cool. All I have to say about that is they clearly did not watch the same film. By the end of this movie you get a pretty good idea of what happens to people who live life thinking they're above the law in every regard.
In the end, I really enjoyed both movies and think they were similar, albeit different glimpses at the same sort of live life to the absolute fullest, no matter the legality, ideal. Though I believe American Hustle shows what can happen if you have compassion and a heart and end up in that territory, where as The Wolf of Wall Street shows the absolute negative side, someone destroying their lives to keep their status that way. I'm rooting for both films at the Oscars and I can't wait to own both of them.
First up, American Hustle
I had an absolute blast with American Hustle. I make it a point to not watch trailers for movies after the first initial one unless it's playing in a theater (because then I can't avoid it) as I like being surprised by movies and not knowing every detail going in. So the trailer I saw for this movie was the initial one with just Christian Bale's speech to Bradley Cooper about who the real artist is if a forger can make an exact copy of a piece of art. So going in I thought it would have some sort of art forgery angle to the movie and was a little disappointed when that's hardly touched on in the film. However, I thought the film was fantastic. It was humorous and fun, and felt smart, and what I mean by that is the "hustles" that the characters pull off felt like they could actually do them based on their back stories, not just because the plot requires it. For contrast, my examples are the Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr. Those films don't have writers that are as smart as the character of Sherlock Holmes is to be written, so when he solves a case it feels like he pulls it out of mid-air because they weren't able to write up to his intelligence level. Going in I had heard reviews stating that they felt the film dragged and felt overly long, while The Wolf of Wall Street is longer but people are generally riveted the entire run time. I do say I agree with that consensus. American Hustle felt long. In the last third I had realized the film had been playing for a long time and was waiting for them to wrap it up. For me however, the length was not a problem for me plot wise. The movie felt like it needed a certain amount of time to set up and pay off each hustle. The problem I had instead was that I thought the character development scenes could have been shorter once we're past the first hour. I felt like once we hit the middle of the movie a lot of character interaction scenes go on a minute or two too long. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, it's actors, it's music choices and especially the hairdos.
Next - The Wolf of Wall Street
I love Martin Scorsese, and I enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio. I love every movie they make together. The Wolf of Wall Street is no exception. A movie that pushes boundaries of what can be considered appropriate for R rated films. It's a gloriously raunchy tale of excess. The cast all around is once again great. I had never heard of Margot Robbie before this film and now I absolutely adore her. Leo turns in another fantastic performance, and goes a lot further than I would have expected him to go. Jonah Hill I didn't find as amazing as a lot of critics are saying, but I think he turned in a solid performance.
The movie is long, and it has loads of nudity and drug use and explicit language. But The Wolf of Wall Street is a tale about ultimate excess. It helped to sell the image you needed of Jordan Belfort, that he was so filthy rich he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I enjoyed the majority of the song choices, especially Scorsese's penchant for the Blues. I noticed a lot of Howlin' Wolf in this thing, which is always appreciated. Though at times the sound editing was distracting for me. There seemed to be this odd sound editing choice for the first half of the movie that would play some sort of high-energy pop song and right as it crescendos immediately switch to a Blues song. It felt out of place and took me out of the movie a couple times because of how unsmooth it was. This movie felt long to me too, but I was entertained the whole time. I never felt bored. Not having done any research on the real life Belfort before, I knew he had to eventually get his comeuppance, but I didn't know the twists and turns the story would take leading up to that and it was so ridiculously excessive I couldn't wait to see what was next. I saw some critics saying the film was glorifying Belfort's lifestyle and making it cool. All I have to say about that is they clearly did not watch the same film. By the end of this movie you get a pretty good idea of what happens to people who live life thinking they're above the law in every regard.
In the end, I really enjoyed both movies and think they were similar, albeit different glimpses at the same sort of live life to the absolute fullest, no matter the legality, ideal. Though I believe American Hustle shows what can happen if you have compassion and a heart and end up in that territory, where as The Wolf of Wall Street shows the absolute negative side, someone destroying their lives to keep their status that way. I'm rooting for both films at the Oscars and I can't wait to own both of them.
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