Got to take up for this movie

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2016)

I don't understand how this movie is getting knocked around as much as it is, especially given the fact that it's about 10 times better than "American Hustle," another David O. Russell movie with many of the same actors. The story is far more organized and the script far less sloppy than "Hustle." Jennifer Lawrence does another tremendous job here. Robert De Niro and Diane Ladd are great. It's an enjoyable and heartfelt story that features a strong female lead (which is rare enough to still feel novel) and is a perfect match for Russell's surrealist style in a way that "Hustle" never was.
Is it an underdog movie? Sure, but it's not overly sentimental about it. Are there flaws? Absolutely. Russell still needs some sort of editor to rein him in, but the mistakes he makes here are far less egregious than the ones that turned "Hustle" into a movie that was 15-20 minutes too long on the front end and 20-30 minutes too long on the back end.
Because of how much I was disappointed by "Hustle," I went into this movie braced to be disappointed again. Instead, I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It feels, to me, a little bit like a pile-on here. Watch the movie and judge it for yourself. But the way that people want to dog this film is just confusing to me.