Amsterdam, the movie

OP = pr shill

Margot Robie is played out.

R1 I do sound like one but no. I'm just glad they finally made a movie that appeals to me. 99% of them don't. Super heroes? Cannibals? Harry Styles as a lead? No thank you. I'll admit I'm a Margot Robbie fan, but the Barbie movie is another no for me. See? Not a shill.

Looks interesting.

New still at link. It's amusing that a few wokies are in outrage that Russell *allegedly* fondled a relative a decade or so ago, and that the movie's actreens have desired to work with him.

It's fun to imagine these dills living in the Renaissance: they would have cancelled every fucking artist.

I agree, OP. I am looking forward to seeing this.

Looks stupid and the caramelized cinematography is atrocious.

This looks a bit masturbatory, like a self-congratulatory acting showcase, but maybe the plot will turn out to be interesting?

Tourists bumping into Rami Malek in Prada NY.

Given his problem with stairs, you'd think that store would be death trap for him.

Taylor swift looks out of place. She’s out of place whenever she’s in a movie

The people on social media wanting to cancel David O Russell and this artist and that artist because of things they might or might not have done recently or in the distant past drive me nuts! I don't give a stuff!!!! Most great artists have problematic private lives. Picasso was a cunt to his women. Leonardo was jailed for alleged rape. Wasn't Caravaggio alleged to have been a murderer? Who cares?! I don't give a stuff what Woody Allen or Roman Polanski did. The europeans have the right idea in terms of bringing a measured perspective, instead of the hysterical witchburning carry-on elsewhere. The cry babies on social media wanting to cancel the movie because of a grope Russell did to a girl over a decade ago who was flirting with him couldn't make a piece of great art to save themselves, yet demand he be judged on their terms. Fuck 'em! End of rant.

Is Christian Bale purposely trying to make himself look more and more unattractive?

Anything with Nepo baby Washington is a definite no for me.

Besides, Margo Robbie plays essentially the same character in all her movies: trashy. She’s one-note.

Can't stand Wes Anderson. Purveyor of twee.

[quote]Margo Robbie plays essentially the same character in all her movies

I watched the trailer of Margot's upcoming film Babylon, and she seems exactly the same in that. I wished that role or this one had gone to Jennifer Lawrence, who is believably comic, and a good actress. I think a lot of actresses in Hollywood must be grinding their teeth at her nabbing all the roles, akin to the equally ordinary Kidman.

After screening discussion.

Is that annoying Ronan girl in it? No? Thank God I'll give it a shot and not get a headache from her annoying fucking voice.

R14, I had to laugh at you post because I saw the trailers for both Babylon and Amsterdam and I thought They were trailers for the same film, targeting different audiences.

Hate the cast. Hate the period. Hate the director.

Hard miss.

Does Robbie's standard American accent (except in the Wizard of Wall Street) sound off to you? It hits my ear as very 'put on'.

Saw it tonight. It's twee, overly-stylized, confusing and long. Christian Bale aped Peter Falk's Columbo.

I gave up trying to suspend my disbelief that these weren't just actors hamming it up.

LOL at the two posters upthread ranting about Russell’s “cancellation” - the reason no one is interested in Amsterdam is because it looks like a steaming turd. And guess what? It is a steaming turd!

[quote]Hate the cast. Hate the period. Hate the director.

Hate the city in which it is set.

That's a godawful trailer.

It’s a 💣. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving director!😂😂😂😂

Margot Robbie needs to be sent packing back to Australia.

I was excited for this and I saw it today - and thought it was largely terrible. I kept on waiting for it to gel and it never did. Fuck.

There's an article on Deadline on the box office numbers which reveal that (hopefully I'm reading this right) it's doing about as well as a flop as a Wes Anderson movie that's a success. Which makes one wonder how Anderson gets his funding.

Don’t forget, America: Denzel Washington’s son is an A-List movie star! Sure, he hasn’t been in a hit movie but we won’t let that stop him! We’ll let him bomb over and over and over again and still make him a star!”

Denzel's spawn was horrible in this movie. No emotion at all

I just saw it. It's truly as dreadful as the critics are making out. I spent part of the time imagining how it could be edited down to make shorter better movie, but even cut down by half, it would still be a meh. Wait for streaming.

I'm staggered that no producer stepped in to insist it be tightened because there's so many redundant self-indulgent scenes that could be easily removed. The tone is so uneven. For most of the movie it's caper, but the script isn't good enough to offer laughs. And then the tone switches to deep seriousness at the end, but with the same characters. Which only makes the movie suddenly seem amateurish. It turns into a student film, with the actors seeming stilted amateurs, but shot in A-Grade Hollywood cinematography.

I'm no fan of Bale but he is definitely excellent. The only funny character in the movie is a tiny bit part played by his secretary. The script needed to be punched-up with a good writer. As for John David Washington: maybe he could be a bouncer. He's certainly not an actor. Margot I would have replaced with Jennifer Lawrence. But the biggest mystery of all remains how it could get to theaters in the form it has. Especially with such huge money at risk.

Also: the first 20 minutes of the movie are perfectly fine, intriguing, and involving. You think: this is going to be great!

Anya and Rami, who play a pair of villains, could have been a highlight if only the flat script had given them some funny lines.

How ANYONE thought a 2 hour 20 minute PERIOD PIECE would do well in theaters is beyond comprehension.

It’s awful.

The central friendship that the movie relies on so much needed a bit more specificity and fine-tuning for me to truly care about the reunion plot that comes later. The dip into Aryan Nation, Nazis, and white supremacy is fairly obvious and comes off as a plot device that isn’t given any meaningful heft.

Margot Robbie is endearing in her role but she is doing “hot, daring (this time, also rich) girl doing crazy things” again. It’s a nice performance but nothing I haven’t seen her do before. Christian Bale has an interesting character and I liked his overall arc. John David Washington is a complete blank for me as an actor and he doesn’t really do much here.

Anya Taylor-Joy is the standout for me mainly because I thought she was hysterical and I enjoyed her every time she was on-screen. It’s almost like she’s acting in a separate movie (playing the Alice Brady-type in a 1930s comedy) but it totally worked for me. Rami was probably my second favorite.

Taylor Swift is just a nothing here. Stunt casting that doesn’t shine in any way and she disappears from the film very quickly.

Robert DeNiro was so boring and basic, that I entirely forgot he was in the movie until I just read the IndieWire review. It’s a “phoning it in” performance.

It seemed like David O. Russell was doing his version of a Wes Anderson film but not as well as Wes would have done.

I watched a live Q&A that preceded a sneak preview I went to see this. Christian Bale talked over everyone and, after seeing the film, he was very much on a “trying to sell this” tour. Malek was very quiet, almost mute, and Margot Robbie was on Zoom and, according to her friends, is apparently very similar to her character. DOR is a douche and didn’t seem to like it being mentioned that this was his first film since Joy. He thought it would be cool to call Margot “Valerie” during the whole Q&A (which went on way too long and was too spoilery).

John David Washington was outshone by Taylor Swift. Lol. I don't think much of his acting, but I've found him palatable in stuff like Ballers (I know, playing a FB player in The Rock's show isn't the same, but still) and Blackkklansman.

He's truly awful in this. Chris Rock, who was completely meh in a throw-away role, would have been better for Harold - at least they're be some emotion. In all fairness, his wasn't the only bad performance.

Chris Rock’s role was redundant. He serves as a one-man Greek Chorus to verbally remind viewers every so often that black people were discriminated against in the 1930s. It’s as if Russell feared Gen Z’ds wouldn’t know this.

Equally galling is the end of the movie where Bale explains the plot in a voice over as if we didn’t understand what went on. It takes the audience for dolts. I wonder if this wasn’t originally in the script and was done in post-production on the insistence of some bone-headed producer who realised what a mess Russell had landed them with. It seems like a clumsy compromise: “No, I won’t edit down and simplify the movie, but I will add an A-B-C explanation for the Marvel crowd.”

It’s going to be interesting to see if the upcoming Babylon, an equally ambitious, sprawling, and expensive movie set in the 30s with Robbie again playing a wild girl, will be the fun caper Amsterdam aimed to be. I wonder too whether its spooked producers are having it tightened.

I think Babylon is set in the 1920s.

It’s amazing that Lily Tomlin doesn’t even blink an eye during his man baby tirade.

[Quote]How ANYONE thought a 2 hour 20 minute PERIOD PIECE would do well in theaters is beyond comprehension.

I'd glad!y sit through a long 1970s period film about Amsterdam focused on the gay scene. Weave a good spy/murder mystery into it and I'm there.

I loathe that this shit film has usurped the name Amsterdam.

Admittedly, Tomlin carries the aura of someone who would be tempermental to work with. She always comes across off-screen as trigger-touchy.

R38, I remember that, but didn't remember it was Russell.

SO SORRY to hear about this FLOP David.

He groped his niece then blamed her for it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Move on. I'm so fuckin' tired of lame attempts to cancel artists. Let them run free in their madness.

Cancelling people for moral shortcomings is SO bourgeois!!!

This clip shows the weird amateur theatre tone that develops in the final act.

Apparently, not many people wanted to see this as it bombed at the box office.

Please, DOR just finished a fully financed piece of shit film that will lost $100 million - after the the incidents which have been highlighted here. He's hardly been canceled. Artists can be criticized and called out without being canceled.

R42, ewww, he has bunches of those flesh-colored moles. I just can’t do those. No.

[quote]Artists can be criticized and called out without being canceled.

The only people doing it are puerile fraus and Gen Z snowflakes.

If you say so.

I loved some of his movies -- American Hustle, Flirting With Disaster, Silver Linings Playbook, and especially Three Kings. As the posters above note, Amsterdam was awful. At one point, I thought maybe it was performance art, like how can you make a movie that has son sense of pacing, no comedy, no direction, dinner theatre acting and trick people into sitting through the whole thing. As someone above said, I can't believe anyone at the studio let this out without demanding edits, script rewrites...

I really have never seen what the big deal is about SLP.

I can’t believe that David O. Russell and Christian Bale worked on this for 5 years in diners. It’s horrible. I see some actors for Razzies this year.

Anya Taylor-Joy turns in a wonderful comic performance in this, but the movie that surrounds her performance is a steaming pile of shit.

I'm not seeing ATJ's wonderful performance. Granted, she's not bad, but also not affirmatively great.

Agreed. She ok, nothing more. Some of those comedic dames of the Golden Years, such as Rosalind Russell, would have slam dunked her role.