Review: David O. Russell’s ‘American Hustle’ Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary On 4K
by David Lewis
Celebrating its tenth anniversary, American Hustle is one of those movies that seems to have largely disappeared from film fan discourse, despite being a box office and critical hit when released. A new 4K UHD and Blu-ray steelbook from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment proves its worthy of another look
After drawing acclaim for films like Three Kings, The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, writer-director David O. Russell began something of a Robert Altman phase starting with this meandering, 1970s-set comedic crime saga, featuring one of the starriest casts recently assembled: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence.
The complex, kaleidoscopic plot involves smalltime con man Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and his partner/mistress Sydney (Adams), who are forced to collaborate with ambitious FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) to expose corruption amongst New Jersey politicians, including Camden, N.J. mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).
Also in the mix is Irving’s loopy wife, Rosalyn (the scene-stealing Lawrence), whose bitter jealousy threatens to bring down the whole operation.
What initially feels like an excuse to wear outrageous wigs and cosplay the best of Martin Scorsese (complete with Bale doing an admirable Robert De Niro impression) finds its rhythm in the second act (where Russell always truly excels, even in a mess like 2015’s Joy). After threatening to implode with endless time-jumps, seemingly improvised scenes, and diversionary subplots, American Hustle sticks a solid landing that packs a hidden emotional punch.
American Hustle is further buoyed by a sprawling supporting cast, featuring hilarious comic turns from Michael Pena and Shea Whigham, who is saddled with the film’s most garish hairpiece. In a handful of scenes, De Niro himself pops up as an aging gangster, making Bale’s impression of him stand out even more.
The ten-time Oscar nominated film looks handsome in a new 4K transfer, maintaining the grainy, disco-era shimmer and highlighting the film’s impressive art direction, costume design, and cinematography — the latter courtesy of Linus Sandgren (No Time to Die, La La Land).
Special features include roughly 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, which could really use an intro or a commentary to give them context. As a whole, they were wisely chopped, as they would’ve bogged down the already overlong film, but they all seem to work on their own. One exception is an extended take of Lawrence drunkenly lip-synching to Paul McCartney‘s “Live and Let Die” and Santana‘s “Evil Ways.” The brief snippet seen in the actual film is really funny, but sitting through almost the entirety of both songs is strictly for J-Law obsessives.
Also included is a brief making-of featurette which doesn’t reveal much. It’s mostly Russell and his stars discussing character traits and expressing how much they all liked working together. The featurette appears to be from the time of the film’s release, and it’s notable that Adams later joined several previous actors (also including George Clooney and Lily Tomlin) accusing Russell of being unprofessional and verbally abusive on set.
Since American Hustle is loosely based on actual events, what the bonus features are sorely missing is a short featurette explaining what happened in real life.
