For months, “Amsterdam,” a brand-new movie, has been kept a secret. We now understand why: it’s unbearable.
I considered leaving several times while watching David O. Russell’s enormous blunder for the press on Wednesday night. After 45 minutes, one significant critic got up from his seat and left the room. Meet the world’s luckiest man!
But no, I stayed to watch the drama, which was not only emotionally taxing but also strangely dull and difficult to follow. That’s strange because, on paper, the movie seems to be a recipe for success.
movie critique
One star. 134 minutes total running time. Rating R (brief violence and bloody images). 7. Oct. in theatres.
Russell, who wrote and directed “American Hustle,” “The Fighter,” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” is a seasoned storyteller. He also gathered an impressive roster of A-level celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, and Anya Taylor-Joy. A fascinating, little-known episode in American history involving a failed attempt to overthrow the government and install a fascist tyrant is the basis of the interesting tale. absolutely nothing
“Amsterdam” has every benefit imaginable. Don’t worry. It’s the year’s worst film so far, and I’ll submit to whatever happens after that and the things mentioned above.
The story opens in 1933 New York City, where Burt (Bale), a veteran of World War I, works as a doctor treating troops who have been wounded in combat. Harold (Washington), his law school closest friend from the 369th Infantry Regiment, is also called by Liz (Swift, who will find it difficult to shake this one off), to do a gory autopsy on her deceased politician father. (Zoe Saldana plays a nurse whose intestines crumble in a thankless part.) Liz is interested in learning more about his enigmatic passing.
A mysterious nurse named Valerie (Margot Robbie), who collects bullets and shrapnel, is in 1918 France when Burt and Harold become involved in another murder investigation.
We observe Russell’s troubling director identity conflict throughout. He emulates Robert Zemeckis by telling a multilingual tale of battles, history, and prosthetics. Bad. And he’s trying to mimic Wes Anderson by casting a Vanity Fair Oscars party of famous people to play dry eccentrics in a washed-out colour scheme. Again, bad. Strong parallels may be seen between the obnoxious smugness and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” and “Vice.”
There is a lack of everything Russell so admired. Where is “Playbook’s” indie soul? The “The Fighter’s” rawness? The sexiness and enjoyment of “American Hustle” Hit me Incompetence is the only quality present in “Amsterdam.”
Returning to the 1930s and meeting CIA and MI-5 agents (Michael Shannon and Mike Myers), who have side jobs as glass-eye salesmen and a passion for taxidermy birds, or the arrival of the wealthy Vozes, played by Malek and Taylor-Joy, who are odd, powerful, sinister, and boring, does not make the plot any clearer.
Later, De Niro appears as a commander who wants Burt to speak at his veterans’ dinner in Manhattan while other forces want him to aid the opposition to the US government.
Rock portrays Milton, a different veteran who occasionally scolds racism in his trademark stand-up manner. No one in the theatre laughs at the jokes that are spoken by everyone on screen. We are preoccupied with trying to understand what the heck is going on.
Let’s just say that Swift, who isn’t an actress, and the strongest Swiffer in the world couldn’t clean up this mess.
On the other hand, many of the actresses she performs alongside are often top-notch but give the impression of being novices. Bale laughs as Washington enters. Taylor and Malek Joy can’t stop themselves from acting like Martians, and Robbie gives us a lighter version of Harley Quinn. The Niro is just there; it’s not bad.
With the hack job script Russell has written and the amorphous tone he’s now preferred, the actors really has nothing to work with. Everyone uses slurred speech, as though reading from cue cards. The expressionless, uncommittal manner must have been a directive. Russell yelled, “Blander! Blander!”
Seven years have passed since the director’s last picture, “Joy.” So let’s hope the next one has the same delight, humour, suspense, structure, character development, conversation, and so on.
There is a lack of everything Russell so admired. Where is “Playbook’s” indie soul? The “The Fighter’s” rawness? The sexiness and enjoyment of “American Hustle” Hit me Incompetence is the only quality present in “Amsterdam.”
Returning to the 1930s and meeting CIA and MI-5 agents (Michael Shannon and Mike Myers), who have side jobs as glass-eye salesmen and a passion for taxidermy birds, or the arrival of the wealthy Vozes, played by Malek and Taylor-Joy, who are odd, powerful, sinister, and boring, does not make the plot any clearer.
Later, De Niro appears as a commander who wants Burt to speak at his veterans’ dinner in Manhattan while other forces want him to aid the opposition to the US.
The story opens in 1933 New York City, where Burt (Bale), a veteran of World War I, works as a doctor treating troops who have been wounded in combat. Harold (Washington), his law school closest friend from the 369th Infantry Regiment, is also called by Liz (Swift, who will find it difficult to shake this one off), to do a gory autopsy on her deceased politician father. (Zoe Saldana plays a nurse whose intestines crumble in a thankless part.) Liz is interested in learning more about his enigmatic passing.
A mysterious nurse named Valerie (Margot Robbie), who collects bullets and shrapnel, is in 1918 France when Burt and Harold become involved in another murder investigation.