American Hustle is the story of a con-artist couple who gets caught by and FBI agent and forced to help him clean up corruption in the New York City area. Because movies set in the 1970’s are trendy in Hollywood now, it’s set in the 1970’s…

Story: This is a well developed story. With exception of the time period for which it’s set, this is a pretty original story. The writers do a good job of establishing the relationships, beginning with the con artists – Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser aka Lady Edith Greensley. They continue to develop the marks while also creating a love triangle between the couple and FBI agent Richie DiMaso, which is fascinating.

And unlike many movies I’ve seen lately, the ending is apropos to the entire story.

Performances: This movie is sure to get a lot of attention during awards season. Best performances: Bradley Cooper as FBI agent Richie DiMaso and Jennifer Lawrence as the wife of Irving Rosenfeld. Now, don’t get me wrong, Christian Bale as Irving Rosenfeld and Amy Adams as Lady Edith Greensley/Sydney Prosser are really good, but, Cooper and Lawrence put that extra bit of crazy on their characters that makes you forget they’re playing a character.

Other special mentions go to Louis C.K. as DiMaso’s FBI supervisor and a cameo appearance by Robert DiNiro as a mob boss. Louis C.K. is particularly funny for being so torchured by everything DiMaso brings to him…

There’s an Oscar nomination, if not win in here somewhere…

Visual: It’s the 70’s. Everyone has curlers in their hair… Shirts and dresses are open clear down to the navel and sunglasses look like binoculars. WTF. Spot on. The backdrop is just filled with images of New York in the 70‘s. I particularly like Irving Rosenfeld’s 1978 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. So pretty…

Rating: American Hustle gets a solid A from me. This is the first movie I’ve seen in a long time that I really, really liked. And for as much as I talk about originality, I should be shunning David O. Russell for basically taking the same cast of characters from movie to movie – Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence. But, I have to give him credit for creating the perfect formula for performance genius and sticking with it. Both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were Oscar nominated for Silver Linings Playbook and she won… I think this year could be the same and he could win! His performance is that good. He really takes it up to the next level…

See this movie. In the theatre… on DVD… streaming – I don’t care what medium you choose, just see it.