American Hustle

It's enjoyable and fun to watch, but just barely touches the surface of its own narrative.

It's a sly film that slips through your fingers, leaving the glitter of great performances, but one you'll be hustling to watch again.

A movie as smart as 'American Hustle' knows that those tactile pleasures only matter if they're attached to some kind of emotional resonance.

Pure, raw energy.

Few are the films that can be described as profoundly artistic and deliriously entertaining, substantial and soufflé-like. Noble, and screwy.

The movie's greatest strength [is] Russell's magnanimity toward his characters, an equable, never cloying embrace of their imperfections.

From acting to directing and costumes to sets, American Hustle offers the total package as far as filmmaking goes.

“American Hustle” is more of a showcase of great actors than it is great storytelling, but it still keeps you glued to the screen as you watch them do their work.

Russell manages to make these characters at once despicable and loveable, complicated and weighty, none of them irredeemable, each of them incurably watchable.

It's unconventional in its uneasy structure, but the rewards for sticking with it are plentiful.