Exhilarating, spectacular fun!

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2013)

I want to start off with this... I love this movie. Why? It's true what so many are saying, it's just incredibly entertaining and just so, so much fun! That's really what it comes down to. The only other O Russell films I've seen are The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook. The former I thought was decent if totally formulaic, and the latter I thought was fantastic although still somewhat formulaic. Russell shows a different kind of energy here that I hadn't seen from him in those two films, and he shows that he has a more distinct vision than I would have imagined. The plot here really is messy and sometimes hard to follow, but what keeps it endlessly intriguing is the cast and many single individual scenes that manage to work completely on their own. This shouldn't be how a film functions, and it's a surprise the film is as great as it is because it really is all over the place sometimes. But it all works.
There are many great performances here, but the single best is Bradley Cooper. Who would have thought two years ago that the Hangover jerk- looking guy could actually act, but wait, that he could actually have an incredibly likable screen presence and steal a film from so many of his co-stars! That's what he does. He releases a kind of energy here that he didn't reach in Playbook and steals away most of his scenes. The other comparable to Cooper is Lawrence, who's also having a blast with all of this. It's like someone let these two come up with their own things and weren't given rules to go by. There's a spontaneity to them and the whole film really, and it pays off tremendously. They both benefit from having some of the funniest material. Bale is great, as expected, but for me, Amy Adams resonated more. In the past, she'd always been hit-or- miss for me, but after last year's wonderful work in The Master and now this, she's becoming someone I'm actually liking a lot. Jeremy Renner has much less screen time than the other four, but he nails the role in his limited screen time. In short, these five make up the strongest ensemble of 2013, unlikely to be challenged by any other cast.
That's pretty much what the film's success comes down to. Its cast (and I didn't even mention all of the other great supporting turns) makes this a roaring great time. It may not have the emotion or gravitas that films like 12 Years A Slave or Gravity have, but it might just be better as a more accessible movie-going experience.