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I think my biggest problem with Russell is that I am just not on his wavelength when it comes to humor. His "comedic" scenes really just come across as awkward and painful to watch. Like, the scene where Bradley Cooper is beating the poo poo out of Louis C.K. feels like it's edited like a comedy sketch, (my audience seemed to support that assumption) and I just thought it was repulsive and unfunny. And most of his comedy seems based around people yelling "quirky" things over-top one another. Same basic thing happened in Silver Linings when the cast gets together in one room and yells at each other for 3 minutes straight to clumsily come up with the stakes for the climax. Oh and that scene where Amy Adams reveals that she's not who she is, and Bradley Cooper starts sexually assaulting her, creeped me the gently caress out and that felt like it was trying to be funny as well. But it didn't have the offensive undertones (Look how funny and quirky mental unstable people are!) that were in Silver Linings Playbook, so I guess I would tepidly call American Hustle an improvement.
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Jan 7, 2014 19:29
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Surlaw posted:It's a pretty safe bet that the creepy, uncomfortable scene that creeped you out was intended to. It's a pathetic guy hitting rock bottom and losing control in a really gross way. Which part of it made you think you should have been laughing? It was mostly Cooper's delivery of the whole thing. I think the line was "it doesn't make sense. Maybe it'll make sense if we gently caress" or something along those lines. It also wasn't filmed with any sort of intensity or horror like an assault scene. I was a flat medium shot that just sort of lingered that offered no emotional connection. Also, my audience thought it was loving hysterical, but I think they might've been retarded. Either way, I don't think Russell has a great understanding of cinematic language.
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Jan 7, 2014 20:19
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second-hand smegma posted:Those aren't the funny parts, so you're probably correct to think that you aren't on his wavelength. No offense, hopefully. I'm willing (for argument sake) to say that the assault scene was intended to be serious and was just botched by Cooper's delivery, but the scene where he beats up Louis C.K.? There's a set-up line in the prior scene where Cooper yells about beating him up. Then once we get to the actual scene, it just jumps right into it with Cooper just yelling ridiculous and over-the-top insults at his commanding officer. Not to mention the fight doesn't affect the status quo, at all. Then there's that whole scene where the two are discussing the event with a superior, which results in the superior sweeping the whole confrontation under the rug like it was no big deal. Then to top it off, the scene near the end where Cooper is listening to the recording in which they think they have evidence against the lawyer, Cooper starts celebrating by nearly attacking Louis C.K. again, which is intended as a comedic callback to the fight.. If David O. Russell seriously intended that event to come off as a "serious" moment, then he failed spectacularly. Marketing New Brain posted:I don't want to pigeon hole the movie, but overall I think it is best understood as a dark comedy, a large number of scenes are played for and meant to be comedic, although there are some sincerely disturbing parts. Cooper becomes increasingly unhinged but so many of his responses are over the top, I was often laughing. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it's intended as a dark comedy (it's intended to be pretty light-hearted, IMO), but most of the humor is supposed to revolve around over-the-top behavior. But I don't think it really works, because there's no straight man in the film for the characters to play off of (okay maybe Louis CK, but he's barely in the movie for him to work as one).
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Jan 9, 2014 06:26
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