Film Review: Amsterdam (20th Cenury Studios) Dir. David O. Russell

Between the box office returns of Robert Eggers’ The Northman, Damian Chazelle’s Babylon and David O. Russell’s newest, Amsterdam, I wouldn’t expect to see too many more big budgeted adult skewing dramas to see the light of day in the near future. Which is a damn shame, as the world needs these sorts of films right now. Big, bold, not afraid to take chances with their stories and characters. Films made by writers and directors willing to shoot for the moon, even if they miss. Amsterdam is the only one of those three I mentioned that I’ve actually seen (The Northman is on Amazon right now and Babylon is still in theaters for now (I’m seeing it soon) and let me tell you that it’s much, much better than the critics and the box-office suggest.

The all-star cast is led by Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington as friends who meet during WWI, form a bond, Robbie disappears and reappears in time for the plot to kick in. Rounding out the cast are Robert DeNiro, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana and a nearly unrecognizable Timothy Olyphant, Amsterdam is based on real life events (the desire by corporate interests to back Hitler in case his plans worked out), Amsterdam takes its time to get where it’s going, but manages to fill in that time by getting deep inside all of the characters and their eccentricities. Sure, it could have been trimmed down a bit to turn it into the crackerjack it could have been, but I enjoyed its loopy nature nonetheless. Maybe time will be kinder to this oddball gem. We shall see.

Amsterdam is currently on HBO and HBOMAX.