TheRetroCritic

Directed by David O. Russell, The Fighter sees Mark Wahlberg play a boxer managed by his brother (Christian Bale) who used to be a professional himself before becoming a junkie screw-up. The struggle becomes to figure out a way to juggle family, relationships and a career without anything blowing up in anyone's face. The idea of a gritty warts-and-all look at a fighter's life isn't exactly a brand new concept, especially since The Wrestler only came out two years prior to this movie, but The Fighter is a well-made enough film that it remains compelling from start to finish regardless. The dynamics between the different members of this family are electric and Bale's Oscar-winning portrayal of Dicky Eklund is impressive to say the least. Of course, the actor lost a freakish amount of weight for the role and that physical metamorphosis crossed with a memorably hyper, shifty-eyed performance makes it one of Bale's must-see movies. Mark Wahlberg is much more unders

David O. Russell is back with yet another Oscar-nominated film starring both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. This time, though, we're at the heart of 70's Jersey with added Christian Bale and Amy Adams. The plot sees con man Irving (Bale) get together with Amy Adams' sexy bad-English-accent-imitating gal Sydney as they start a relationship and form a partnership which both turn sour when cocky FBI agent Richie (Cooper) decides to use them in order to expose corruption high-up. The nutty plan involves getting close to Mayor Carmine Polito (a perfect, vastly underrated Jeremy Renner), getting the mob involved using a fake Sheik and taking dodgy dealings as far as possible so the FBI can just swoop in and pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, Richie is no convincing con man and his inexperience keeps getting in the way, as does Irving's mouthy wife Rosalyn (Lawrence) and about a thousand other things. Russell's film can be seen as a homage to Martin Scorsese

Back when I Heart Huckabees came out, critics didn't know what to make of it. Some loved it, some hated it with a passion, some didn't know either way. Like a cross between a Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman collaboration and a Coen Brothers screwball comedy, David O. Russell's film proved too odd for most people. I Heart Huckabees follows Jason Schwartzman's character, a depressed poet/environmentalist on a quest to discover the truth behind a bizarre coincidence. He hires the help of a couple of "existential detectives" (played to perfection by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) to help him figure all this out but the oddball detectives start getting maybe a bit too involved in his life. Jude Law plays Schwartzman's main antagonist, an insufferable douche who works for a company called Huckabees and who takes over his save-the-forest coalition for the sole purpose of making the company look good. Other players in this whole story include Law's airhea