American Hustle

DRAMA

Hustle to Survive

8.0 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: R Pervasive language, some sexual content and brief violence

Release Date: December 13, 2013 (limited)

Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes

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Director: David O. Russell
Writers: Eric Singer, David O. Russell
Cast:  Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Alessandro Nivola

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SYNOPSIS:  A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive British partner, Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso. DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.

REVIEW: The Fighter director David O. Russell reunites with Christian Bale and Amy Adams for another period drama based on real circumstances. Written by Eric Singer (The International) and director Russell, Bale, Adams and Cooper try to grift their way to their biggest score.

Irving (Christian Bale) lives a different type of life, growing up in a way that eventually led him to a life of grifting. Even with legitiment businesses from his father, he gravitates to taking advantage of those circling the bottom of the barrel where the desperate and despondent live. At a winter pool party Irving meets a kindred spirit in a woman named Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who incidentally elevates his con game. But even keeping the cons small enough to manage, Irving and Sydney get pinched by eager young FBI man Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Forcing the pair into helping him make a name for himself, Richie promises to let them go if he is handed four significant busts. When Richie gets a taste for success he demands bigger busts from Irving and Sydney. Feeling way over his head, Irving must figure out how to balance his and Sydney's tentative freedom, the good name of the Mayor of Camden Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who he has grown to respect, the wants of DiMaso of the FBI and a bunch of mobsters and congressmen who want to invest in the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Set in the Spring of 1978 New York and New Jersey, American Hustle is a great throwback to the con artist movies of the past. Con games and artists are entertaining to watch. It is one of the reasons why White Collar works so well on the USA Network and why Paul Newman and Robert Redford's The Sting is such a classic. It's also why an audience will sit through a 138 minute movie. An audience will put into the time as long as there's a great payoff at the end.

But it's not just the con game that keeps this film rolling. Filled with great dramatic and comedic dialogue delivered by great actors and actresses, as well as a paced plotline, American Hustle boogies down. Adams, Cooper, Bale and Lawrence create unique and nuanced characters filled up with their talent. Louis C.K. and Cooper do great work on a comedic side, making audience laugh at how ridiculous their work relationship is. Bale's Irving and Adams' Sydney are in constant jeopardy, pinning their well-being and livelihood on their grifting talents. The problem is that they have never worked on this large a scale.

The style is 70s tones and disco abandon, letting the characters loose with necklines that extend to the waistline, wide lapels, hairy chest and gold medallions. The real world of 1978 was wrought with a recession, a war that left a bad taste in America's mouth and skyrocketing interest rates. While American Hustle is a story about scamming the system, it is also a backdrop for the state of the union. The FBI was still young and not even thinking about crime at the white collar level. Because of that and people's desperation grifting was very lucrative indeed.

The cast is brilliant, the story is superb and well paced. American Hustle is worth the money to watch, not unlike watching a street hustler move the hidden ball move under the three cups of the shell game. 

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The Hunger Games Catching Fire

ACTION/ADVENTURE

Girl Still On Fire

8.75 out of 10 | Movie and DVD

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Rated: PG-13  For intense sequences of violence and action, some frightening images, thematic elements, a suggestive situation and language
Release Date: November 22, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 26 minutes

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Director: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt, based on the novel 'Catching Fire' by Suzanne Collins
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Jack Quaid, Taylor St. Clair, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lynn Cohen, Jena Malone

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SYNOPSIS:  Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.

REVIEW: Francis Lawrence, director of I Am Legend and the upcoming The Hunger Games: Mockingjay films, takes over the reins from Gary Ross and brings Katniss and Peeta back to the games. Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours) and Michael Arndt (Oblivion) adapt the second book from Suzanne  Collins in the hopes that the tributes from District 12 can survive.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, Epic) have returned to Panem's District 12 as victors of the 74th Hunger Games. Living in the Victors Village, the best homes in the desolate community, Katniss still desires to leave with Gale (Liam Hemsworth, The Expendables 2) into the forest and away from the rule and oppression of President Snow and the Capitol. Sensing an uprising in the Districts, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) urges Katniss to portray the 'in love' winner with Peeta to quell the ideas of rebellion. When their victors tour results in squabbling crowds and unrest, Snow changes the rules of the game by announcing that the 75th Hunger Games, the 3rd Quarter Quell, will reap its tributes from the past winners of the event. Peeta and Katniss are forced back into the fray as the games commence, banding together with some if the other tributes in order to stay alive and to remember who the real enemy is.

Jennifer Lawrence returns as the reluctant heroine Katniss in the second of the Hunger Games series. No longer novices from the first film, Katniss and Hutcherson's Peeta better understand the political machine behind the oppression and fear of the Capitol and the presidency. Katniss sees graffiti of her signature mockingjay everywhere she goes, signifying a change in attitude of the populace against the government. Winning the 74th Hunger Games in front of the entire world with the virtue of love and sacrifice has sparked a faint, but strengthening, life of hope throughout the Districts.

A darker and more stark entry, Catching Fire starts by reintroducing Katniss and Peeta in the aftermath of winning the Hunger Games. Winners of the games and living a slightly better life than their District 12 neighbors, the pair suffers a strained relationship as each tries to rationalize their true feelings. Katniss still loves Gale, Peeta pines for Katniss, and President Snow desires the continued success of his rule in the Capitol and over the Districts. More entrenched with politics and subterfuge, Katniss and the others have to deal with more painful emotions and the realization that they are again forced to fight against an almost infallible opponent.

Jennifer Lawrence has an even more raw edge in her second outing as Katniss. Josh Hutcherson, as Peeta, shows that he is not just that defenseless young man from the 74th games, growing into his role as a leader and defender of District 12 and Katniss. Under-appreciated Woody Harrelson shines as Haymitch, the tortured former winner of the Games. He straddles the line between gifted diplomat and ragged alcoholic. Effie Trinket, played by Elizabeth Banks, is softer and more humanized, showing that living in the shine and decadence of the Capitol does not necessarily mean that she has no heart. Philip Seymour Hoffman steps in as the new games master Plutarch Heavensbee. Sutherland and Tucci are phenomenal in their returning roles.

From a fairly faithful adaptation of the book, to superb performances by a stellar cast, to a story that seems to start off as a retread but ends up with intrigue, action, pain and suspense, Catching Fire takes The Hunger Games to the next level. Katniss may be the Girl on Fire, but she may set all of Panem ablaze.

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The Hunger Games

The World Will Be Watching

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Rated: PG-13   Intense violent thematic material and disturbing images - all involving teens.
Release Date: March 23, 2012
Runtime: 2 hrs 22 mins

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Director: Gary Ross
Writers:  Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, Billy Ray
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Wes Bentley, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland

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SYNOPSIS:  Each year, the Capitol of Panam requires each of its 12 Districts to subject one boy and one girl to compete in the Hunger Games, where the twenty-four Tributes must fight to the death until only one competitor remains.

REVIEW: Gary Ross, writer and director of Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, has proven that he understands the minds of youth and the perils and pitfalls of the competitors of sporting events. Taking the characters from the first book in 'The Hunger Games' trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, Gary Ross, Billy Ray (State of Play), and Suzanne Collins herself bring the inhabitants of Panam (a future ruined North America), its Capitol, its surrounding districts, and the competitors in the annual Hunger Games to life.

In District 12, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) cares for and hunts for her sister Primrose (Willow Shields, Beyond the Blackboard) and widowed mother, and toys with the notion of leaving the district with her friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth, Knowing). As the 74th Annual Hunger Games approaches, representatives from the Capitol headed by Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks,  The Next Three Days) come to the district for the Reaping, the selection of one boy and one girl between the ages of fourteen and seventeen to serve as Tributes for the game. Every family's request for government assistance asked for during the year between games equates to an additional ballot for one of the family's children of age. When Primrose is selected as District 12's female tribute, Katniss volunteers. Also selected from the district as the male tribute is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island). Together they accompany Effie back to the Capitol to prepare for the Game. Drunkard Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson, Zombieland), tormented winner of the 50th Hunger Games, is selected to mentor and prepare the pair for the televised fight to the death. Joining the District 12 prep team is stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz, Precious) and District 12 representative Effie. During training, Katniss and Peeta prove they are not simple poor district trash, and that they may be contestants to contend with. Although there are 24 Tributes in total, the most arrogant and cable competitors are embodied in District 1 tributes Marvel (Jack Quaid), and Glimmer (Leven Rambin, One Tree Hill) and District 2 tributes Cato (Alexander Ludwig, Race to Witch Mountain) and Clove (Isabelle Fuhrman, Orphan), 'Careers' who train their entire youth to compete. Once the games begin, Peeta and Katniss are on their own in a camera-filled, electronically-controlled, forested domed death arena.

Starting with the characters, Jennifer Lawrence ended up being an excellent choice for Katniss. Athletic and strong, the Katniss character still exudes innocent and resistance to the status quo of the Games. Hutcherson plays Peeta with strength and cockiness, until he realized he is really in over his head. Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger) and his blue hair add the glitz and glamour as the Hunger Games Master of Ceremony and co-anchorman Caesar Flickerman, seeming like the Ryan Seacrest of a failed dystopian future. While Caesar comes to the screen as the bright shiny face of The Hunger Games, Wes Bentley (Gone) and his orchestrated beard directs a team of producers and technicians to capture every moment of the televised games and, sometimes, change the unscripted event with some additions and nudges of his own. Eiizabeth Banks is nearly unrecognizable as the powdered-face, geisha-painted lipped, Effie. The other stand-outs are Amandia Stenberg as the petite, pint-sized Tribute Rue (Colombiana) and the barely-seen but important Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. And Donald Sutherland's President Snow, although soft-spoken, carries with him an experience and political and personal agenda that will certainly be explored further in the additional films.

I will be the first to admit that I never heard of Susan Collins trilogy of Scholastic books until The Hunger Game film was announced. And as a true cinest, I did not want to jump on the book reading bandwagon for fear that my movie going experience would be tarnished with ruined story plots and blown surprise reveals. In spite of that admission, I will admit that I did bone up on my Panam universe history just to be prepared for the Hunger Games. Ross, Ray and Collins do successfully recreate the written word from Collins' first Katniss novel into a freshman film that does not lessen the experience for the uninitiated. From the locales to the costumes to the actors and characters, The Hunger Games is something to behold. Maybe a little lengthy and slow for my taste (please do not crucify me, 'Hunger Game' book fans!), I do realize that several secondary characters and scenes from the original book were downplayed in order to keep the most important elements. I also realize that a few scenes were quick and concise to get important story points across to the audience, and to keep the film propelling forward.

With intense scenes like the start of the 74th Hunger Games at the Cornucopia followed by retreats and periods of waiting with Katniss roped onto a high canopy tree limb, the story did have periods that were a little uneven for me. The character development of Katniss and Peeta through the course of the game did help to keep my interest between fights in the last act. Knowing that it was important to focus on Katniss during the games, I did find that Seneca Crane and his televised reality show production got a little forgotten for a time toward the end.

The Hunger Games hype is sweeping across the country as the film opened to a non-sequel box office record breaker for its opening night midnight screenings. Will The Hunger Games replace the Twilight Saga as the next big thing once Breaking Dawn: Part 2 premieres this November? First it was Harry Potter, then Twilight, now The Hunger Games. If the box office is any indication, that very well may be the case.

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WORTH: Matinee and DVD

X-Men: First Class

Meets Xpectations

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writers: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Sheldon Turner Bryan Singer

Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult

SYNOPSIS: Before they opposed what each stood for on mutant/human relations, Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr were friends and worked together to set up a school for those with mutant abilities.

Before Wolverine joined the team, an entire generation of comic readers remained riveted to the origins of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Set in the backdrop of a semi-historical look of 1963 and the Cuban Missile Crisis during President Kennedy's administration, director Matthew Vaughn and a series of writers (including Bryan Singer) put to film something that Marvel Comics does so well - namely, the ability to interlace the fiction of superheroes and mutants with the realities of ongoing real-life events. Where DC Comics has the fictional Gotham City and Metropolis, the Marvel "bullpen" churned out story after story using the skyscrapers of New York City and the sprawl of the surrounding boroughs to bring us Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and a team of mutants living in a world that fears and hates them.

But avid comic reader and geek graphic novel historians beware! The 1963 team of X-Men in the film, although an origin story, has few parallels with the comic where a wheelchair-bound Professor X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman and Angel battled against an already embittered Magneto. In X-Men: First Class, the only member of the original comic team is Beast (Nicholas Hoult), last seen in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, as an adviser scientist fur ball played by Kelsey Grammer. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence from Winter's Bone) returns (can you return to an origin story?) as a younger self not yet completely loyal to the future Magneto bent on the domination over and the servitude of all homo sapiens. The rest of the team consists of Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), an Irish lad Sean Cassidy with a sonic scream, Havoc (Lucas TIll), Cyclops' brother Alex Summers with his own barely-controlled concussive blasts, and Darwin (Edi Gathegi), a mutant with the ability to adapt for survival.

The relationship between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is compelling throughout the film. Xavier's bright and sometimes naive expectation that mutants and mankind can coexist flying in the face of the beliefs held by Erik based on an upbringing of Nazi concentration camps, murder and experimentation. Lifting the Magneto origin straight from the original X-Men opener and expanding it is a reminder of how good Bryan Singer's contribution to the X-Men franchise is.

X-Men: First Class covers much ground trying to pack in lots of "Easter eggs" and faithful beginnings to the original set of films, some good, some okay and some that makes the audience giddy and hooting with excitement. The recruiting montage that Charles and Erik spearhead after the first use of a primitive Cerebro works perfectly, funny and captivating. The villain mutant Azazel (Jason Flemying) dispatches a building full of CIA operatives that would make Nightcrawler envious. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) is a decent evil foil against the combined efforts of Xavier and Lehnsherr, but the references to Shaw's Hellfire Club are watered down to mere passing. And Emma Frost (January Jones) as Shaw's right hand telepath, although fashioned in plenty of White Queen attire for the comic geeks to drool over, is little more than diamond eye candy with plenty of screen time. The genetic scientist Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) from the comics has been completely reworked to be a mid-level CIA spook, for better or worse.

X-Men: First Class has story, action, heart and levity, but ends up a little uneven. The original concept for a Magneto prequel by Singer evolved, like mutants, into a bigger story involving all sorts of furry and high-flying players. Although somewhat faithful to the X-films that come after it, the die-hard fans will certainly be offended by some of the liberties that the film takes over the comic source material, both in terms of chronological history and the spirit of the Marvel mythos that houses homo superior.

WORTH: Matinee or BluRay

The Beaver

Leave It To The Beaver

Director: Jodie Foster

Writer: Kyle Killen

Stars: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Riley Thomas Stewart, Cherry Jones

SYNOPSIS: A serious depressed and suicidal man starts talking through a puppet of a beaver in an attempt to reconnect with wife, children and employees.

Jodie Foster directs and stars in this quirky dark dramedy with Mel Gibson. As Walter Black, Mel Gibson is a man who has lost himself and his way to happiness. After years of self-help books, therapists and prescription drugs, Walter still walks through his life in an uninterested, detached haze. When his wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster) finally forces him to move out, Walter then stumbles even further into his suicidal downward spiral. Failing to hang himself on the hotel bathroom curtain rod, he is confronted by an Aussie voice talking through a beaver puppet he happened to have on his hand. Working through the puppet as his spokesman, Walter sets out to reclaim his place in his family and business.

The subject matter is difficult and strange, but Foster presents it well. This story could be any of a man struggling through life, but The Beaver’s use of, well, a beaver is at times appropriately humorous, somewhat strange and ultimately dangerous. Foster does not try to force the talking furry puppet into its own frame, content with letting the audience see Walter speak through and work the beaver together. Of course, Walter’s youngest son Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart) adores the Beaver, eager to have his father in his life. Walter’s oldest son, Porter (Anton Yelchin) , resents that he himself has any similarities with his father. And how much can Meredith (Jodie Foster) take of a beaver that never leaves her husband’s arm.

In addition to Walter, we also see the subplot of a son running from his father and what the son sees he may become, all the while finding voices for others as he gets paid to write essays and compositions for their classes. As he escapes from himself into others, he loses what it is that makes him an individual. Even his interest in the Valedictorian cheerleader leads him further down a road that is not his own.

Foster uses the son’s use of the hanging post-its of his similarities to his father as a way to define a person’s traits as individual elements that can be removed from the whole. She uses other visual elements to also denote the boxed in, but fractured essence that is the center of the film. What tools are used to build scrap wood memory boxes for the youngest son also serves as a reminder of the reality that Walter is unable to cope with.

Faint hints of the ventriloquist’s dummy in Magic comes through. Is Walter the voice for the puppet, or is he the puppet as the extension of the beaver? In the third act, a momentous confrontation ensues between Walter and the Beaver, echoing another film that I refrain from offering since it may give away too much.

In all, The Beaver is strange and interesting. Gibson’s depiction of Walter’s depression is palpable. And you can see Jodie Foster’s Meredith tired of standing by her man as he spins out of his mind. Can a man find peace through a mouthpiece while unable to cope without it? And what must a man lose or gain in order to fight back from sanity’s brink? Since this film is only in 22 theaters around the country, you will not have much opportunity to take in this film at the moment, but if you are a fan of Jodie Foster or Mel Gibson's What Women Want, this film may be attractive to you.

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix