Very good. Not as broad as I'd expected, and not so much of a genre - or genres - as something that defies easy categories, driven as it is primarily by character, albeit in a way that generates plenty of story and with the late 70s period trappings front and centre ... it feels as much like a movie made in the 70s as one that's about that decade.
David O Russell is a good start, and all of the big five actors moving through it are ace. Bale, Cooper and Renner are all entirely convincing (although, with the first of those, there are occasional - perhaps unavoidable, but rather incongruous - flashes of Batman), but it's the women who sear - Jennifer Lawrence steals every scene she's in, while Amy Adams is simply brilliant (thinking back, I think she was similarly great in the only other film I've seen her in, The Master). And, not least because of those performances, the whole thing's got soul.
(w/ JF + Vera)
David O Russell is a good start, and all of the big five actors moving through it are ace. Bale, Cooper and Renner are all entirely convincing (although, with the first of those, there are occasional - perhaps unavoidable, but rather incongruous - flashes of Batman), but it's the women who sear - Jennifer Lawrence steals every scene she's in, while Amy Adams is simply brilliant (thinking back, I think she was similarly great in the only other film I've seen her in, The Master). And, not least because of those performances, the whole thing's got soul.
(w/ JF + Vera)
