[Cali Panthers Fan]

Watched Amsterdam last night, the new David O. Russell film with Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie.

It had such potential...but it didn't know what kind of film it wanted to be. It felt like two films with different styles and pacing smashed together. Wildly inconsistent from scene to scene, and the acting was even noticeably inconsistent, even with very good actors. At times it seemed like they were just including famous actors just to say "hey, check out this scene with this famous person!". Felt a bit too much like a stage play at times. It struggled to create flow and there were scenes and plot lines that didn't seem to add much to the overall enjoyment of the film.

That being said, there are some very good things in this film too. Bale is pretty good playing a very unique character. Robbie is intriguing on screen as is Washington, but not incredible. The set design, costumes, and overall aesthetic was pretty good. My favorite contribution came from Mike Myers playing a British intelligence agent. Really seemed to nail the role but also add a small bit of levity. He's become quite a good supporting actor given a small enough role. Michael Shannon also provides some good scenes as his partner.

I wanted to like it, but it was just so disjointed and uneven. I really had trouble with some of the acting. I also had a big issue with the sound as there was almost nothing in terms of ambient noise or music in the vast majority of scenes, and the dialogue was so quiet at times that it was hard to hear everything. It needed a good editor and a better script.

I'm giving it a 5/10 just because it was a really ambitious film, but it just falls flat. It hurts me to say it because Russell is one of my favorite directors, but he missed the mark this time.