American Hustle
American Hustle feels like a mash up of the casts of Boardwalk Empire and Silver Lining Playbook plopped into the gaudy dying days of The Hustle and everything else disco. This is a fictionalization of the Abscam operation that was set up by the FBI in the late 70’s and early 80’s when unlike today telephones weren’t so portable and had enough heft to act as a pretty good weapon. At that time the feds hired a convicted con artist to mastermind a sting operation hoping to film prominent politicians accepting bribes from a fake Arabian Sheikh. Here the con man is called Irving Rosenfeld played by Christian Bale who must have endured the opposite diet to the one that emaciated him for The Machinist. Here he plays to perfection a bloated scammer with the world’s most hideous comb over. Still with all that it’s a testament to Irving’s persuasive talent that he is simultaneously bedding his beautiful but edgy wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Laurence) and his gorgeous larceny equal, mistress/business partner Sydney (Amy Adams). Irving and Sydney get busted by Ritchie Dimaso (Bradley Cooper) an ambitious Federal Agent with a Tony home permanent whose promise of leniency presses them into government service. Dimaso’s original plan to entrap small potatoes mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner also sporting a hideous hairpiece) gets more and more grandiose in scope to not only snare Washington politicians but also Mafia kingpin Victor Tellegio (Robert DeNiro sporting even more bad hair). The contrapuntal intrigue starts getting pretty incestuous what with Bureau bean counting boss Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.) constantly throws up financial roadblocks to all of Dimaso’s big plans and the unbalanced blabbermouth Rosalyn taking up with Pete Musane (Jack Huston) one of Tellegio’s henchmen. Then there’s Sidney amping Richie's Libido in order to gain her own leverage that also ignites a Rosenfeld slow burn of jealousy. Sure some of the stuff in this picture actually happened but a biopic this is not. But hey could the truth ever be this entertaining?