I’ve been dying to see the movie American
Hustle since it came out. Didn’t
get a chance to catch it in theatres.
But when it became available on demand, so I was excited to see it. I had a free night the other day and
decided to rent it. I snuggled up,
got cozy, popped some pop corn and settled in to watch the movie.
Yay!
During opening credits, it stated that the
movie was going to take place in 1978.
Great! I thought. I am a child of the seventies. I graduated from High School in
1979. I wore all the hottest
clothes, listened to all the music, and danced the hustle. I even snuck into a couple of discos
with my sis!
I was enjoying getting into the movie. Then, during a scene with Jennifer Lawrence,
she was wearing a sheer white dress.
It was quick, but I thought I spotted a thong under her dress. Hmmm. But we didn’t wear thongs in the 70’s. Umm, they weren’t invented yet.
Ok.
I kept watching.
Jennifer was trying her best at a Long
Island housewife accent. Unfortunately,
she was falling in and out of it.
Half Long Island, half Chicago.
“Go to the stawh (LI for ‘store’) and buy a cahh (Chi Town for ‘car’).
Hmmm.
And she was nominated for an Oscar for this
performance.
By the time she got to her last scene, the
Long Island/Chicago accent was completely gone and it sounded like just sloppy
Hollywood. Really surprising that
they let that happen AND it got her an Oscar nom to boot.
But, I continued to watch.
All of a sudden, in a very poignant scene,
Amy Adams whispers to Bradly Cooper, “You got this.”
Huh?
Wait a minute. Did she just
say, ‘you got this’?
She couldn’t have just said ‘you got
this’. It wasn’t invented
yet.
Maybe it was just the popcorn
crunching.
Let me rewind.
Watched it again.
Increased the volume.
“You got this.”
UGH!!!! Oh, no she didn’t!!!!!
But she did.
I’m sorry, but nobody said ‘you got this’
in the 70’s!!!! This is
ridiculous!!!
I continued to watch...
Later on in the movie, Christian Bale was
taking about being ‘real’ a lot.
Something else we never said.
He also made a speech in which he says
something about being in, “that place.”
Today, we say stuff about going to “that place” when referring to
bringing up a topic of conversation or emotional state. In the 70’s we would use “that place” when
referencing a physical location.
I hate to complain or nitpick , but this is
a multi million dollar film.
Performances were Oscar nominated. Didn’t anyone check for references like this? Wasn’t anyone on the film older than
30?
What the fuck??
In a film where they tried to replicate the
fashion, the music, and the culture of the 70’s era, they dropped the ball on
the dialogue.
Although, they also dropped it on the
fashion. I’m sorry, but no one
walked around with an ultra low cut blouse down to there all day everyday. To business meetings and lunches with
their boobs popping out. Maybe,
just maybe they’d wear it to a disco.
But even then, if they were hustling (dancing) their boobs would never
stay in.
Amy Adams’ hair was also super long. But the Dorothy Hamil wedge cut was what
everybody was wearing at the time.
This was a very short hair cut.
Very few women wore very long locks then. And if it was long, it was not that long. That was the 60’s.
So, needless to say, I hated this
movie. How could I get through it
with all of these ridiculous anachronisms! I’m sorry, I’m not a professional film critic, but if you’re
going to make a movie that takes place in a particular era, get your shit
together. You must pay attention
to detail. Right?
I mean, the 20 and 30-somethings will never
know the difference, but don’t you want to make an authentic quality film?
This film bites. In other words,
“They don’t got this.”
