TINASHE - AQUARIUS : Music Review

We lost Aaliyah, may she rest in peace. I want to talk about Aaliyah first before I dive into Tinashe mainly because Aaliyah was such an immense talent. Her style of advertising herself was not too tacky but classy and sexy, she made classic sexy commercial. Her commercial did not end with her looks, she sang so well and Tinashe reminds me of Aaliyah in all the good ways!

Yes, Tinashe comes off as a bit "slutty" especially if you watch her interviews on YouTube. But it's all worth it when you listen to her debut album!!! Her R&B style vocal is bringing it! Her well calculated image does not come off as a gimmick at all. She has a lot of production work done under her belt, at a home studio where she produced her then promising mix tapes. However, Aquarius is a full length album distributed by RCA, as commercial and mainstream as it can get. A lot of questions come naturally, will it sell? Will it match the success of her US Top 40 single "2 ON"?

The most important question to me is "Does it deliver?". Yes and No. YES because of her spot on vocals and flirtatious, femme fetale, "you don't know shit about me" delivery. Also, the fact that her presence is strongly felt even when collaborating with big time producers like A$AP Rocky and Mike Will Made It, courtesy the project budget from RCA. There are not much misses but NO delivery happens for the lack of radio friendly tracks. Radio friendly sound is one of the ingredients of a No.1 single right? but anything can happen in this industry . So, in other words, Tinashe's Aquarius does not deliver in a way that there is no "Dr.Luke", "Take my to the chorus", radio friendly single.

Aquarius does have quality though, winking at the audience, flirting at you. Tinashe's career is promising to say the least!!! This '93 born R&B singer is selling it! Yaaaasss!!!!

Buy it on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/aquarius/id911472229

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Movie Review

Teenage mutant ninja turtles, yes, it’s a huge pop culture show for all of us. But did it settle with the audience of the silver screen this time around? The answer to that is both yes and no. I like the C.G.I, it does not get better than that, Hollywood production at its best. What flawed TMNT is the silly plot. If I wanna watch something as cheesy as this, I’d rather watch a Karan Johar movie!

Yes, it’s true, I love Megan Fox! She’s so pretty! She’s so hot! Sex, sex , sex!. She acted kind of OK. The scene where in the ninja turtles and her glide down a snow covered mountain side is the most chilling, she screamed at the right place, laughed at the right place while our favorite ninjas go around looking like monsters, a production decision I find really hard to understand.

It’s a Paramount production so naturally come the MTV plug, of course! I was in shocked and awe when Hollaback Girl was played and this is where the plot gets confusing, how old are the Mutant Ninjas? Or was Viacom just trying to slightly hint that Gwen Stefani is back? Viacom is too huge of a company to pin point manage Gwen’s promotion but were they? Yes, the plot is indeed diabolical! 

Maleficent : Movie Review

There is something about Angelina Jolie that I will always love. She's drop dead beautiful with or without make up. She acts so well (with or without sex scenes) She's the home wrecker who refused to be hated. She's the actress who went to Pakistan and traveled on a bus! Yes, you get the picture, ANGELINA JOLIE IS AWESOME. So, naturally, Maleficent is a movie that is made better with the help of Angelina Jolie!

Maleficent is a remake of Disney's Sleeping Beauty told in the light of Disney's most compelling villain. Every graphic in the movie is beautiful, even the CGI is so detailed that it looks like the depth and detail texture of a physical set. But yes, like all CGIs, some of it feels like a CGI. The movie goes on to tell the story of a young Maleficent who's a fairy, who lives in the Moors, a land set off from humans because apparently humans are evil. She fell in love with a human who later drugs and physically abused her by cutting off her wings. Here comes Jolie's impeccable performance; she wakes up in a forests to find out that her wings were cut off by her human lover then she gave out a chilling sob nearly deviating from a Disney friendly plot. Angie, you're good!

So, the plot goes on to show the many evils of human beings but mainly the sin of greed. Maleficent cursed young Arora, the daughter of her ex lover who became king for reasons I wont tell because I don't want to be sued. Maleficent cursed Arora to fall into a sleep like trance on her 16th birthday. She's so keen on keeping this curse alive that she ends up saving young Arora from death. And then the feminist plots came into life. 

Angie's performance sells Maleficent, the plot is bruised by deviating to many sub plots. Disney lately becomes very good in terms of "moral". There's no more of the brain smashing cheese anymore and I like the ride very much. Frozen is another example of the "new age Disney". Well, any movie has my approval as long as it has Angelina Jolie in it. 

Godzilla : Movie Review

Hollywood reboots change so many things. Godzilla and Spiderman are the main example. So, I am at the movies thinking Godzilla is gonna be the bad guy but turns out it’s totally different. Direction wise, this movie is very polite, or shy rather because there is no “in your face” action. It works ‘cause the lesser the villan scruffs on your face, the scarier it gets.

Set in Japan at the beginning, Bryan Cranston proves yet again that he can act complex characters, depressed rather. The plot is not very easy to keep up with. It’s confusing at times because of the many mentions of “radiology” and other scientific shit like that. I was not interested at all about the damn science shit but it’s all about making the audience a little confused to keep them on the edge of their seats right?

I said that Godzilla is the summer blockbuster that I look most forward to, (in 2013 it was Man Of Steel) and I should tell you, it’s not as orgasmic as Man Of Steel but not at all a let down like “Now You See Me” which was a total bluff. I like Godzilla because yes, the acting is very good, the young Olsen sister acts all her character’s emotions way too much but it works, also the characters are complex and realateable. Gareth Edwards directs the movie at ground level where in the audience feel as though we’re in the actual movie staring at Godzilla from the window of a school bus. Everything is so Hollywood like the scene where a dog barks at an oncoming tsunami leading to a flood that engulfs the whole city, the dog died? Oh no! It ran away to safety and was it shown again? No.

I’m not even gonna start with the 3D effect because every movie with a 3D tag lately for me means “less brightness, 3D at the beginning but bland all the way through” I’m yet to see an unanimated 3D movie that actually HAS 3D effects post the Avatar 3D hysteria. So, in conclusion, Godzilla is not a boring movie at all. I like it a lot. It’s just that I should not set my expectations too high the next time. 

Why Madonna Should Retire

Madonna started her career even before I was born. She’s the original slut of pop; call it female empowerment or anything you want but her ever changing persona is always sex. She is the epitome of sex sells, she helps shape music by pushing what is acceptable and all that but that was way long ago! What is she now? An artist who’s singles doesn’t sell anymore, an artist who cannot sing a single line in tune at a live setting and most prominently, she’s a publicity stunt gimmick, in other words, an attention whore. 

I would say that she’s an icon, no doubt about it. She’s huge, everybody in the world knows her, even my late grand mama admitted that amongst all the pop stars, she knows Madonna and Michael Jackson, that’s how famous she is. But like all good things, it must come to an end. I say this because someone needs to say it, “Madonna needs to retire now”. Nobody asked for a lack luster single and certainly not a shade to Lady Gaga who is the new talent.

Madonna might claim that she likes Lady Gaga but in all seriousness, it does not seem like it’s so. She mocked Lady Gaga at her sold out world tour at the same time contradicting herself by saying that she likes Gaga there by leaving a wide gap for 40 plus year old gay men to interpret it is as “sarcasm”, that’s why most older gays hate Lady Gaga so much. Professional writers, critics and other artist alike have been throwing shade towards Madonna since timely memorial, yes she has had a lot of harsh criticisms in her career. But this so called fit between Lady Gaga and Madonna is a thing that the press obviously fuels apart from the fans that spread it like wildfire. So you might ask? Does it benefit both the sluts of pop because it creates a competition thereby prompting fans to buy more singles out of competition or more mentions at the press? Yes but isn’t this tactic way too boring? Lady Gaga is also boring too, she is out of ideas now even though she’s stupendously talented. However, Madonna is way more boring and way out of ideas that her idea fountain is a frickle of dust now and Lady Gaga’s  is still flowing in a stream. 

So this leads me to ask. When your star does not shine anymore is it acceptable to still try to be relevant? Is it high time to note that you’re done when you can’t sing live anymore, not even a single line in tune? Is it female empowerment to cling on to your youth when you have flabs on your arms and have to wear gloves to hide your sagging hands? I believe in the fact the growing old is an opportunity and it should be done gracefully rather than the way Madonna is handling it or rather avoiding it. Is it ok to spur up drama and hate towards young talents just to stay relevant? When your tour does not even involve you dancing but just dry humping the air while your dancers do all the hard work is still innovative? When you‘re just “so out of ideas” why would you still release new materials? 

Madonna needs to retire, we know that and it’s a shame because for a person as famous and as talented as her, she would obviously be smart enough to smell the rotten  but truth is, she chose to ignore it maybe because she wants more money? I don’t think so since she’s loaded. Note Guy Ritchie got a lot of her money after their sad divorce but still almost 3 decades of mega stardom would certainly pay. Here’s the thing, we loved Madonna back in the days but the curtain has already been called, she’s back for an encore and she refuses to leave the stage even after the 2nd curtain call. 

Oculus

I’m not a big fan of horror movies. I used to love them at some point in my life but now that I’m a bit grown up, they all seem jaded. Horror whether it’s in the form of a film, a story or by word of mouth was pretty scary but now, not so much. I remember the first time I saw M Night’s Signs starring the anti-sematic Mel Gibson; it was one heck of a scare movie. I remember not being able to sleep in my room for quite some time even to the point where my mom got really annoyed. The thing that makes a movie like Signs so scary is the fact that the main scare tactic or the “ghost” does not show that much; it’s all in the sounds and the vague imagery however Oculus does not reply on that tactic. Oculus shows the “ghost” full frontal, it’s scary but you’re reminded again and again by your brain that “this is a Hollywood movie” so naturally, it’s not that scary. How can it be scary when you know that all those rotten flesh on the “ghost’s” face are actually made of make up or Computer Generated Imagery? 

Oculus starts off normally, as any other horror movie would, a cliché of revenge and a narrative like someone got killed in the past, it was all a mistake and the outside world did not understand, now someone needs revenge but I gotta give the writers credit on a point that in Oculus, it’s not the “spirit” who wants revenge but the human. Kylie (Karen Gillan) had to witness the sad fate of her parents being possessed by a spirit from an antique mirror thereby killing each other’s also involving her younger brother Alan (Rory Cochrane) who with his father’s guidance shot a bullet through his father’s head. It’s some sort of a suicide since the father clearly pulls the trigger while Alan holds the pistol but none the less got him sentenced and a series of stint at the psych ward. Kylie seems to be the one who’s leading a normal life with a hot boyfriend however it turns out that the siblings promised each other’s that they would take revenge on the antique mirror for tearing up their family. So Kylie sets out on a mission with elaborate camera and Macbook set ups to prove that the mirror “makes you do things” after researching the mirror’s past thereby showing a series of really grotesque photos of “past victims”. There’s even a victim that died in her bath tub due to dehydration! And so the story builds up. On the other hand Alan is already convinced via his stint at the psych ward that all the actions were part of his “hallucinations”. I’m gonna stop narrating the plot here or else it’s gonna be a spoilers article again and I don’t want to get sued by Hollywood.

Even with the clichés and the very predicable plot line, Oculus is directed very beautifully. The writers sure did a lot of re writing particularly in the settings just to make it more relatable. I love the young Kylie, she’s so smart and brave and is the epitome of the brave role model sister I never had (I always wanted a bigger sister when I was young and even went as far as to lie to some school friends that I had a sister who would tell me all about her boyfriend) The movie also feels like it’s sponsored by Apple with the many Macbook product placements and the iPhone used to divide “reality” with the “ghost’s gimmick”. Well, by the second half of the movie, it gets blurred into reality and hallucination so the scene where Kylie takes out her iPhone to distinguish between the two world has Apple product placement written all over it or in other words, the writers re-writing the script to make it more relatable at the same time earning a bit of advert money for the studio. 

I like it when a movie clearly depicts that it’s a corporate product. Hate it when it tries to make it look indie while still being a huge corporate junk. Oculus never shies away from being the corporate product that it is and it’s also pretty entertaining, scary? Not so much but entertaining? Yes. It’s sort of like the Ring 2 which touched my heart (mother’s love) but scarier than it however not to the point of The Conjuring which was pure solid scare all throughout. The ending leaves a wide room for future sequels and I would totally watch Oculus part 2 if that’s ever produced.

Manali Trip

So recently my mom, aunt, cousins and I visited Manali, Himachal Pradesh. It was my first time in Manali and let me tell you, it's BEAUTIFUL! I strongly suggest that you go visit the beautiful place. I've never been a big fan of the snow and on my defense too much cold is never sexy but Manali changed my whole perception about snow covered hills. There is no airport or train station in Manali town so you have to drive or "fly" with a helicopter if you're really loaded. 

We started from Delhi which normally takes around 13 hours however it took us 2 days to reach Manali! It's a funny story actually. We started out from Delhi all equipped for it but stopped way too much for refreshments and all the jazz so we were still driving towards it even at 10 pm, we rented an SUV and the driver was super drowsy trying to keep himself awake while he drove curves uphill which naturally freaked my mom and my aunt out like bat shit crazy, so they decided that the best way to "not die" is to rest at Kullu and start off to Manali the next morning. My cousins Puia, Hlua and I did offer to drive but yes, the two sisters who paid for the trip would not let us so the night was spent in Kullu, a chilly town I must add. 

The thing about Manali is that it's a very small town! Every tourist attraction is not inside the town itself but near and about it. We drove everywhere to do tourist stuff like trying to go to Solang valley twice in 2 days but failed due to heavy rainfall. Science states that snow when mixed with water is very slippery and the SUV did slip offering us a better view of the cliff where we were driving. We actually stayed an extra day just to see Solang Valley and luckily the weather was good that faithful day however it turns out Solang Valley is a proper touristy place with expensive stuff. The famous mall road turns out is actually not a "mall" but a pedestrian only street with shops beside it. They sell all kinds of souvenirs, clothes and the best Chinese food. If you're visiting Manali, you need to check out the restaurant Chopsticks, their price rage is pocket friendly and the ambiance is pure cottage. I like how the locals were super friendly and helpful with directions, they all seemed genuinely nice. It felt like they take pride in helping the tourist which made up about 90% of everyone I saw there. They're all pretty good looking too and like my friend commented, "Paharis (hill people) do it better", sadly I did not get the chance to prove this theory, it was a family trip so it stayed pretty PG. I did take a lot of pride "coming from Delhi". One guy sniffed at me "Kidar se aiga?" (Where are you coming from?) and I sniffed back "Delhi!" then stormed off. It felt great!

We also visited an orphanage run by the Mizoram Church, the lady in charge was Ms. Mawitei, a very elegant and sassy lady I must add. She's not married but decided to give her life to the orphaned while spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm not a religious person but I admire what she's doing, she's in action! She does not posts condescending statuses on Facebook or call any of us "sinful" she just lives it up with her life and to me, that's pretty cool. I've posted some of the photos below:

We had to adjust our luggage in Haryana because "the sisters" said so. 

Waiting for our order at a Dhaba in Haryana. That's my mom at the back with the glasses slaying the pose. The lady in the green sweater is my aunt and on the left are my cousins Zawmi, Puia and Hlua. 

This is what was showing on a TV in Punjab. One of the many stops we made for the sake of "refreshment".

Mom slaying the pose.

The dogs all have really thick fur. Adaptation. More fur = warmer body. Look it up. 

 Work called. Had to answer.

 The fabulous and overtly over priced fur coats.

 Hand made bags

Mom shopping for souvenir

Dinner at Chopsticks, the best Chinese food I had in a long time. I really liked this restaurant, they even had a fireplace!

 The majestic view from an orphanage run by the Mizoram Church.

 This picture is slightly off 'cause I took it from inside the vehicle through a glass window. LOL.

 Mom being really happy at Solang Valley.

Taking "for souvenir"  photo with mom.

On the way to ski at Solang valley.

So there you have it!. Let me know down in the comments where's the most fun vacation you guys had.

Stay positive, be happy. Be the best person that you can be. 

Love, 

Caleb Manoa Ralte

Movie Review : Divergent

I haven't read the book Divergent by Veronica Roth and I certainly haven't watch the trailer as well. I was at the theatre for Oculus, which I enjoyed and reviewed. After being scared to death by Oculus I decided to watch another movie at the next slot and it happned to be Divergent , let me tell you, I was so entertained!

All I could think of when I saw the movie poster was that it’s so much like The Hunger Games, and the studios did not try to hide this as well, there’s gonna be a sequal and believe it or not, it’s already in production! I love Shailene Woodley, she’s pretty talented. Her role in The Descendants was pretty awesome and it’s  refreshing to see her acting skills on this movie. However the very political plot the movie seems to be showing feels blurred with the “Twilight” sort of romance that obviously builds up with another “hot” cast, 4 played by Theo James who also turns out to have a lot of common traits with Trish (Woodley).

Divergent sets in a dystopia world near and around Chicago, the citizens are divided into 5 groups based on their personalities. They can be the smart kind, the self less kind, the brave kind etc. I really don’t remember all of it. When the kids  are  old enough to chose where they belong to, they go thorugh a test that is sort of like an aptitute test to help them decide which personality is their strongest, however, according to the very bitchy role that Kate Winslet plays, it’s their right to chose where they want to belong, nice eh? But the catch is that once chosen, it cannot be changed. The faithful morning arrives for Trish to do her test, surprise surprise, Trish does not have any particular personality that is stronger than the rest so she’s a natural born Divergent, which the authorities are super afraid because they can be anything amogst all the five categories they can chose to be. I see this as a commentary towards modern society where you are foreced to chose an identity from the stereotypes and when you chose not to conform to stereotypical labels people get scared and trust you me, the citizens of the movie are super scared of Divergents.

None the less, Maggie Q gets all worked up when she realize this while giving a test to Trish and eventually Trish decides that she wants to be in the “brave group” a group of crazy folks there to protect the city from the “outside influence” outside an electrical fence surrounding the world that they all live in.  Director Neil Burger nicely directs all the scenes so as to make the best “hollywood” effect to it. Christina (Zoë Kravitz) finds solace in Trish and they all join the brave group trying to fit in. The good thing about this movie is that the narrative is carried on seamlessly with Burger’s flawless directing like the slow motion when Trish jumps off from a roof top into a deep dark abyss noone really knows what’s gonna be underneath. The voice over also helps a lot in giving crash course lessons on what “the fuss is all about”.  However the political commentary that the book clearly tries to make gets blurred a bit with the romance sub plot. Don’t get me wrong, romance is not a bad thing for a movie but the fact that the “grown up” commentary The Hunger Games effectively conveys does not translate on this movie sets me off a little bit. If it’s not for all the very attractive cast, this would not work but it does, all thanks to hormones.  Jai Courtney who for some reason looks like a Macklemore look a like delivers his “so tough” role convincingly, I would hate him but I kind of do not because, yes, you guessed it, hormones.

I like how confident Lions Gate is for this franchise. It’s directed towards teenagers and like all teenager movies, they are always quite good but never pass the point of ‘good for the sake of marketing’. Ellie Golding seems to be the only A grade pop artist to be paid for this movie score as well. Strike to the intellect is clearly not the intention but it works. I would like to get a hold of the book and see if this is an “ignorance is bliss” scenario or just plain it’s “based on the book”. Maybe it’s a lot to wish upon from a movie about identity and fighting scenes but all the acting in it are great, Ashley Judd nailed her role, Woodley clearly does as well, Theo is convincing with his American accent and Ansel Elgort is Caleb, Trish’s brother who’s not given a lot of material to work on but none the less delivers a very solid performance especially the “holy shit” face he makes while crying on top of their  father, Scandal’s Tony Goldwyn . All I could think of was if I was in Trish’s shoe, they would totally push me off a cliff at training because I would NOT survive in a world like that at all. 

Record You Must Check Out : "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit Feat Jess Glynne

If only India has a music scene as vibrant as the UK, it would be dear. That’s a huge thing to wish upon because in a land where Bollywood soundtracks dominate the charts or iTunes sales, people even forget that indie artists have sphere of existence in this world. I came across this song “Rather Be” by an indie band called Clean Bandit, before you judge me, this is not a ‘hipster for the sake of being hipster’ move, they’re actually quite popular and this single even peaked straight to No.1 at The Official Charts UK. 

I like it because the chorus is oh so infectious! Who can ignore those tunes? Jess Glynne's vocals glides on every note like a hot knife through butter. The arrangement is top notch, it stars with a violin intro then moves to pop music gem. By the sound of it, Clean Bandit’s sound is a little bit of old school strings (I heard a violin and a cello harmonizing) and a dash of EDM, just to the perfect amount, no more no less. So, if their music was to be told by the rules of Chemistry, they would be a compound of old and new; the exact right amount rather than a mixture where it’s mixed but borderlines “garage band improvising”. 

My biggest support goes out to the band because a) They make their own music videos and b) They produce their own music (hence indie) two factors that ring to my mind as “authentic” or “original”. Let’s see if future singles deliver or even exceeds “Rather Be” because all I can see are good things for this gem of a band.

Check Out The Video Below: 

Song Of The Day = "R U Crazy" By Conor Maynard

Conor Maynard, yes, you might think that he's a "Timberlake wannabe", he is kind of but at the same time not so. R U Crazy is great for a single off a "dreaded" second album. I mention "dreaded" because Conor Maynard set the bar so high with his first album Contrast. Now everyone's hoping for the 'next A grade pop music'. Co produced by Labrinth it deserves the tag of A grade pop music which Justin Timberlake does not perfect so dearly anymore with his current materials. Here's the tricky part; the bridge at 3:20 minutes sound like something off a Timberlake single then the notoriously catchy chorus kicks in again. The video is crisp and looks expensive too, proving yet again that Conor Maynard's music might be commercial but it's damn perfect! 

Watch the video below.

Special Announcement; "Summer Update" "Free Merchandise" and many more

Summer is here! I'm so excited! Look at all the movies I'm gonna review! I have a lot up my sleeve, lots of reviews, surprises, some of which I can talk about like a chance to win free stuff but some, have to stay as secrets but let me assure you, they're worth the wait. Stay tune and I'll be announcing them as 'Summer Update' go by. You can follow me on twitter @CalebRalte I might follow you back.

Talking about summer; Do you guys like summer wherever you are? Even though I must admit, here in Delhi it feels like torture! If you're from North America or Europe, I bet you love summer and I'm super happy for you while I sit with my steak sweat, it's a metaphor. But of all seriousness, I'm so excited for all the summer blockbusters that are gonna come out, can't wait for Godzilla, the shameless way the trailer is shown makes me caffeine invoked excited. I wanna know, which summer 2014 movie are you most excited about? Leave me a comment.

I just wanna point out that even though summer in Delhi is a mess, I'm lucky enough to live in an air conditioned house, I complain a lot but I never count my blessings until today when I realize I'm super blessed while eating momos in Lajpat Nagar so I wanna tell you this, if you ever feel that life is unfair on you, count your blessings. It helps.  

I hope you guys are having the time of your lives. Be happy for what you have. Yes, life sucks, but it's not that bad. 

American Hustle

So, my first update in 2014! This is exciting. It’s hard to review movies and have a full time job at the same time. Don’t get me wrong; I love to blog and give you guys updates on my take of Hollywood movies and pop culture but I’m an independent African American Woman who needs to put food on the table, that’s not all true, I’m not African American but yes, I do need to work to feed myself although by feeding I meant to say that I buy fast food every day and prepare my own meal once in a blue moon and I make I don't run adverts here and I don't have a sponsor either and you guys don't pay me with cash but with love and that's more than enough for me. With that said, American Hustle is also about embracing the weird in you, in a lot of ways. It’s about embracing the grotesque talent in you, if you consider being a con artist grotesque, but the script is written so well that you can’t help but feel your heart warming as the story unfolds with the actors playing their part so seamlessly well, they all make it look so easy to act. I’m sure all the gays went out of the movie theatre feeling like “I’ve always known I wanted to be an actor” and it’s good, it happened to me too so not only is the movie a bit not so easy on the Indian ‘conservative’ palate, it inspires you and a lot of movies don’t do this anymore. I love Gravity, it was my favorite movie of 2013 but I did NOT want to be under NASA’s pay roll after leaving the movie theatre, trust you me!

American Hustle was released fairly late in India, that too as part of the ‘Oscar Fever’ line up. I like the custom, the many furs that Amy Adams wore, the way Bradley Cooper perms his hair and the hilariously scarce hair on Christian Bale’s head and who can forget his slick and realistic New York Italian accent! Jennifer Lawrence, any movie is lucky to have her, with a hair do kept alive by endless streams of hairspray and a character borderline psychotic, she is just amazing. The CinemaScope is a herald for the 70’s, it screams disco too a part where Bradley Cooper presses his junk to Amy Adam's hump while Donna Summer is played on the dance floor, disco ball spinning of course. Even if not for the custom every scene was so well executed because David O' Russel directed it so well without any bleeding of a retro look for the sake of retro look a lot of indie movies are adopting these days. In other words, the direction is modern but tells a tale of something that happened in the past without leaving out the new too much, it’s a technique that is very well carried out. 

There is no boredom because the script takes you to more complications and twists again and again. It all started with Irving (Christina Bale) and Sydney (Amy Adams) planning a con wisely however ended up being caught unwisely by an FBI agent Richie (Bradley Cooper) and the story goes around to prove the "some of this actually happened" caption at the beginning when Richie hunches the duo along his sting operation, yes, it actually happened kids, look it up. They go so far as to con New Jersey mayor Carmine (Jeremy Renner) who I never knew could act so well. The mayor character is so well written, he's charming, loving and genuinely loves his people but not all his techniques are PG. 

Nobody would believe the movie to be a dark comedy; I watched it believing it’s a political drama and was still in for it because the movie opened with a caption “Some of this actually happened”.  I ended up laughing at lot, especially at Jennifer Lawrence. The scene where she almost burned down the house by trying to microwave an aluminum foil covered food all the while spitting “Nobody can tell me what to do. Do you think I’m stupid?” was epic. I hated her for almost ruining her husband's Irving's ticket to be off the hook but loved her when she learned her lesson at the same time, only the greats can execute it so well like she did. If I keep on telling you all these, this review is starting to get into spoilers territory. Dark comedy it is but it still lets your heart beat a lot in scenes when the deception started to move away like the protagonist and his scheme mates planned. The scene with Robert Di Niro, who for some reason is not credited, is clearly the most heart beating adrenaline infusing scene of the whole movie. 

Although there is a lot of deception in the movie, the script is so clever, it steers clear of making the audience depressed in a way that all the deception were actually needed to bring out the best or the inevitable. All the schemes, the lies, the deception brings out what is best for all of the character, some learned their lessons and all the negative actions that your parents taught you about while  you’re young summed up the inevitable and warms your heart, it also makes  you question if you’re smart enough. I like it when a movie inspires me the way American Hustle did. Of course I won’t change to be a con artist but at least sprint my brain to be more active or I can try to say the least.