Amsterdam is a comedy movie that is written and directed by David O. Russell, starring, none other than Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Alessandro Nivola and Anya Taylor-Joy. Star-studded is the first thing that comes to mind when seeing the cast, note, we failed to mention that Robert De Niro is also in this feature film.
A rather chaotic film that does not seem to know where it is going.
Be warned, critics have not received it well, and have almost shredded it to pieces. Therefore, we will attempt to defend it. Yes, that is how “special” we are.
Premise
A friendship between three characters is forged during WWI, and they will some time late, in the 1930’s, find themselves embroiled in a frenzied story involving murders and espionage.
Movie Review
Yes, the movie has been ripped apart mercilessly, and it has been said, to sum it up, that it is this year’s stupidity, a big star-studded chaos, and that it is senseless.
To give credibility to those emeritus comments we will say that, perhaps, and for once, they are right. The story told is impossible to grasp, nor does it intend to be grasped. It is a delirious comedy, that counts on a huge budget and in which every detail of the scenography and setting is carefully crafted, the costume designs are spectacular, and it features a movie star after another, even Taylor Swift has a role. So on a production scale we will give it 5 stars.
And along comes this filmmaker, David O. Russell, who has made a couple of good movies (The Fighter, for example, with Christian Bale), and brings us the delirious comedy where it shines through that the actors are having a hoot, and they in fact manage to transmit that hilarity to the viewer, by the hand of its protagonists, like the one-eyed Dr. (yes, he lost the eye during the war) who ingests all sorts of fancy drugs, and through his remaining eye we get to revisit in the form of flashbacks scenes and dialogues that a close to surreal.
If the film critics did not like this movie, we do understand. We however, liked the idea behind this movie, and we know that other filmmakers (dare we mention the sacrosanct Anderson?) have made features with a similar delirious take, and yet have been received with awards and accolades by the critics.
‘Amsterdam’ is another gem we have been granted (I am sorry, I cannot contain myself). It is laden with social commentary that has taken on artistic expression. Think of a Picasso, for instance, just with more delicate aesthetics. A Dalí, perhaps?
Little do we know of what this gentleman (he goes by the name of David) had for breakfast the day he decided to write this screenplay, but we can say that it turned out to be an hilarious viewing experience, with a plot that is outrageous and silly, but that knows how to mock cinema itself, and the various genres in it.
And so, we will leave each to their own take on this film, as we will definitely delight ourselves in acknowledging the luxurious production without giving the story too much importance, nor try to decipher it.
There is a lot of irony in the takes themselves, and it does not limit itself to using shot/reverse-shot, which in turn leads us to a more cinematographic reading on the matter (see the images in this article as references as they will give you an impression of the richness applied by this director). As for the narrative structure that is proposed in this aesthetically luscious and ironic-moronic mocking feature it simply makes it all the more fun.
Our Opinion
We are not dealing with a marvel. And we will not say that we have not seen anything like this before, but it is rich in nuances (both in the story and visually). It is a rocambolesque number that merits being seen.
Movie Trailer
Director
David O. Russell
David Owen Russell (born August 20, 1958) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been praised for the loose, comic energy that characterizes his work, and is notorious for his explosive confrontations with cast members. He has won 2 Independent Spirit Awards for writing and directing as well as the Audience Award at Sundance, and a Writers Guild of America Award. Read More
Cast
 Christian Bale / Burt Berendsen |  Margot Robbie / Valerie Voze |
 John David Washington / Harold Woodman |  Robert De Niro / General Gil Dillenbeck |
 Anya Taylor-Joy / Libby Voze |  Rami Malek / Tom Voze |
 Chris Rock / Milton King |  Zoe Saldaña / Irma St. Clair |
 Mike Myers / Paul Canterbury |  Michael Shannon / Henry Norcross |
See full credits >>