The ice fishing story

American Hustle

Crit

Lots I didn't expect to be saying about this, but number 1 is that Katniss Everdeen gives one of the best comic performances--maybe THE best--in a film this year. It's a role that tiptoes dangerously close to dumb and dangerously close to cliché, but Lawrence infuses it with sympathy and street smarts and life and fall-down hilarity. One of the year's great performances, which I guarantee the Academy will ignore. Another thing I didn't expect to be saying is that this is one of my favorite--almost certainly one of my top 10--films of the year.

You may recall (but probably not) that I did not hop on the Silver Linings Playbook bandwagon, so while I've loved some of David O. Russell's work, I went into this one skeptical. No need. A good love story, a great con story, and--oh, here's another thing I didn't expect to be saying--a fantastic soundtrack not simply dependent on the mostly mediocre music of the real-life story's era (starts on my father's 59th birthday, 4/28/78) but also exploiting some wonderful jazz. Oh, and also--this is certainly the unlikeliest thing I'd be saying--a perfectly Grace Slick-sounding Arabic version of "White Rabbit."

Trailers

• RoboCop--I didn't know about this. Did you know about this?
• The Monuments Men--If I hadn't already been hot for this, the new trailer would have made me hot for it. But come on: how can you not be hot for this?