We watched American Hustler last night. We all waited until the Holiday cheer abated. And the crowds. Christian Bale is always spot on. Bradley Cooper — not so sure about him. The girl that was the lead femme — seemed miscast. I’d seen her in ‘Doubt’ as a nun and in Clint Eastwood’s ‘Trouble with The Curve’ as an attorney that blew off attorneydom and she was flawlessly cast in those pictures. In this film — I wasn’t convinced. I kept seeing her more as a ‘tomboy’. I had difficulty with buy-in of the sexed up version. I like her as an actor but just not so much in this film.
The actor that stole the show was Christian Bales’ wife, Jennifer Lawrence. She did a bang up job and really scene stole every time she was up. I’d be really disappointed if she didn’t get nominated for something… So that being that. The story seemed like I’d seen it before when it was called the Mark Zuckerberg story. Could someone, besides Eastwood, come up with compelling stories that have modicum meaning? This shit about the schmuck that swindles gets old. Surely, there’s a culture in which people aren’t encouraged to be schmucks and then do some freaking trite act that somehow balances out their schmuckdom in the end and makes it all better… the denouement? WTF, do me a favor.
What about New Guinea — anything worth ripping off culturally there? What about mensches? Remember when the concept of being a mensch was something to shoot for? I guess it needs to be re-introduced into the pablum fed to the public. I thought the film was disappointing. We like Jeremy Renner; he and Bale both did a great job. But sell us something other than schmucks. If you want to see them you can do it for free — watch CNBC’s American Greed.
This is going way off book but Shane Hurlbut was in town last month and we had a couple of beers with him. If anyone heard the Christian Bale rant on the set of Terminator that went viral. You can hear him ball out and refer to someone named Shane. Who I thought was an AD or lighting guy on set. But — WRONGO — it was Shane Hurlbut — WORLD CLASS DOP. And thus the world comes full circle. From the hollow ringing of the internet to a bar in Austin, TX. Like some wiggy version of MAGNETISM. Had to laugh. No one goes unscathed…
How do you like them apples?