We have an idea in our head of who we'd
like to be seen to be, and so I suppose any time we're presented with options
relating to our presentation then we go for the ones that support that image. A
perfect way of figuring out what a person is about might be their clothes, the
way they've decorated their house or even the style of their hair for example.
Personally I have a ponytail which suggests that I like people to think that
I'm laid back whilst at the same time suggesting a hatred of conformity... because
a ponytail is an act of rebellion that's only slightly less clichéd than
getting a shit tattoo of a skull and listening to heavy metal music. Although
that is true, the other reason is that after years of battling with my shorter,
sticky up hair, I eventually gave up and disowned the fucker... He does what he
wants and I won't question it so long as he leaves me alone in return. Turns
out that what my hair wants to do when left to its own devices is grow. Who'd
have thought it?
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| Batman, Mystique, Hawkeye, Lois Lane.. and introducing Bradley Cooper as 'Pubehead'.. |
I mention all of this because it seems that
hair is the key to understanding the film American Hustle or to give it its
original and far superior title... American Bullshit. Taking place in
the late 70's and early 80's, the movie tells the story of a fat balding con-man
played by Christian Bale who, along with his partner Amy Adams, is forced into
becoming a mole for the FBI. In fact there's a good few scenes near the start
where those two get to know each other by having fun and dicking about which is
kind of like the shittest Justice League movie you could possibly imagine! This film is directed by David
O'Russell who, some people will remember as the director of Three Kings, The
Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook and who others won't remember as
the director of I Heart Huckabees. In case none of that rings any bells
though then he's also the guy that got into a proper tussle with George Clooney
on one set and was filmed losing his shit with Lily Tomlin on another. In
regards to the Lily Tomlin one I suggest you check it out on YouTube if you
haven't already just to see how blindly mad one human can possibly get... also
it's fucking hilarious to see him storming in and out of various set doors as
though it's a chase scene in a Scooby Doo cartoon whilst the elderly
actress that he's screaming at remains fairly chilled out. If we're going back
to Jung's theory of personas then it seems David O'Russell has worked pretty
hard at presenting himself to the world as a massive angry twat.
Anyway I said that hair was the key to
understanding this film and it is, with each character sporting head pubes so
awful that the shamed barber responsible should be forced to fall on his
scissors. Christian Bale has gone for the classic look of having a bald head on
top but with long hair around the sides to comb over after hiding the naked scalp
below a scraggily glued on merkin. However despite being proper ridiculous, it
really just serves to show us who the character is as the film opens with a
long sequence in which Bale lovingly and meticulously crafts it from scratch.
It's hard to create but shows that he's a man who'll put in the time and patience
for just a little dignity. It also shows a more human side to him as we see a
misjudged attempt at hiding vulnerability by accidentally drawing attention to
it. His hair really has its cake and eats it by partly helping to endear him to
us but also getting laughs out of how much of a knob it makes him look. This is
true of pretty much everybody else too with Bradley Cooper’s tightly wound perm
being representative of his tightly wound and slightly manic personality. I
suppose that for both Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence who are both kind of
fighting for Bale’s attention... well, their hair is like a peacocks feathers
getting bigger and bigger as one tries to intimidate the other whilst keeping
the eye of their mate on them. As well as these world class actors, the
comedian Louis CK turns up as a fat, balding man with a ginger goatee... Amazing
how chameleonic some people can be.
However not only does the hair tell you
about the characters, it is so over the top and eye-catching that it draws your
attention to just how fucking superficial everything is. Like any movie about
money that's set near the end of the 70's and definitely the 80's, American
Hustle also shows off the excess of those slightly tacky decades. For
anybody who flashed their cash, films like this, Wall Street and American
Psycho revel in their depiction of double crossing arseholes who hide their
two faces behind either shoulder pads and beehives or pinstripe suits and
offensively un-erotic porno tache's. This superficial streak is only emphasised
by the films plot which is about a group of people who make a living from
conning people into believing that they're people that they're not. I've never
used the word 'people' more in my life than that previous sentence. Considering
this was during crime’s tutorial decades where there was no internet to quickly
Google for bullshit, assuming false identities was simply a case of coming up
with a character, dressing up and again... presenting the correct persona. For
the sake of this blog alone, I am so fucking glad that I read that shit by
Jung.
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| "It smells funny.. Like my fingers are here to fucking amuse you?" |
However this idea of presenting a false
persona through superficial details not only exists within the plot of American
Hustle but actually within the DNA of the movie itself. The film has
long swooping camera movements, cool edits, a heavy reliance on voice-overs and
a great soundtrack. It also examines both morally grey characters, the
corruption of the American Dream and also puts more emphasis on people's
relationships than the actual plot. Just short of shagging Liza Minnelli, doing
too much cocaine and almost dying of asthma, American Hustle seems
desperate to convince us all that it is the work of Martin Scorsese. On top of
that, there's a scene here that seems to take place in the same restaurant as
the Goodfellas, 'Funny how? scene'
and a fight between Bale and Lawrence that to anybody with blurred vision is
kind of like the fight between De Niro and Sharon Stone in Casino. In
fact the only thing it lacked to make it feel completely like a Scorsese film
is the appearance of De Niro as a violent Mobster and then bam! About half way
in.. Spoiler Alert... De Niro shows up as a violent mobster.
However, rather than feel like a Scorsese
rip-off the film gets away with it because firstly, the whole thing is about
depicting fake identities through surface details and secondly, it's just so much
damn fun. Although at the very worst it did make me desperate to catch up with The
Wolf of Wall Street. I can say with some certainty that so far this is
definitely my favourite film of 2014 which is only partly down to the fact that
it's the only one I've seen so far. However, even if that wasn't the case
there's surely no way that anybody couldn't enjoy the scene where Lawrence is
going apeshit to the song Live and Let Die and dancing like a pisshead
with a power cable up her arse. To conclude, if you've not seen American
Hustle then I recommend you go and check it out because it's funnier than
most comedies and features great performances from everybody... Particularly
Amy Adams who seems to be playing three characters at once- she's an English
woman, an American Woman and a woman who can't decide if she's the English or
American one. I'm not sure what Jung would say about the persona she puts out
considering she's confused by it herself although I might have to read on and
find out. In fact I only read the book once and there's a good chance that I
might have gotten all this persona bullshit wrong. I'm pretty sure I haven't
but... fuck.. I'll go re-read it. Hope you enjoy and see you next week
motherfuckers!
