American Hustle (2013)

David O. Russell is having a bit of a renaissance here. After The Fighter and Silver Lining’s Playbook comes another entertaining film with an all-star cast of Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner. It’s the story of a con artist couple being used by an FBI agent to use their talents to indict crooked politicians during the ‘70s. And it’s inspired by real events. All of this is intriguing enough but add Russell’s brilliant use of character development over plot to make this an even better film than it probably deserves to be. This one has great tension, many laughs and classic interactions from very memorable characters. My only complaint (and it’s a minor one) is that it’s pacing isn’t as smooth flowing as his other films, but I still greatly enjoyed this zinger. Grade: A-