Great movie

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2014)

Great movie, and I'm not into boxing. Good human drama, though the rise-to-the-top-against-the-odds boxing story has been done before, many times.
Solid direction from David O Russell.
The movie is driven by the performances though. Christian Bale deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. It is debatable whether he was the lead or supporting actor, though. He has more dialogue and screen time (ignoring the fight scenes) than Mark Wahlberg, and generally carries the movie. Not that Mark Wahlberg's performance was poor, it was just understated, and intentionally so.
Melissa Leo is solid as the mother, but I am not sure she deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Especially as Amy Adams gives a better performance, I believe (and was nominated for the same Oscar).
All this is aided by a superb, rockin' soundtrack - Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Ben Harper, among others. Considering how Led Zeppelin never allow their songs to be used in movies ("Kashmir" in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is the only other exception I can think of), the use of "Good Times, Bad Times" was quite a coup.