Amsterdam Review: Big Stars, Big Miss!

Amsterdam (2022) is a periodic comedy thriller film written, directed, and produced by David O. Russell. The storyline revolves around three friends who need to work with one another after being accused of a murder that is linked to their past. Led by a charismatic trio, this film also stars Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro.

Also Read: Smile Review – A Contagiously Terrifying Film!
Also Read: Barbarian Review – An ESSENTIAL Horror Film!

Let’s start with the positives. First off, Amsterdam is an all-star game. The top three billing of Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, and John David Washington were enough to draw me in. However, in every single scene there is a very familiar talent that almost competes with one another to win each scene. I was a big fan of the performances of Margot Robbie and Christian Bale. Robbie played Valerie, who started as the mysterious character that had her jump off the screen. Although her character didn’t have a great arc, she still had a great performance. Bale continued to be awesome as Burt, as he was the funniest character and gave you a physical and emotional performance.

Also, how Amsterdam was shot by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, felt like I was transported back into the 1930s without the use of heavy green screens. David O. Russell has a consistent visual feel throughout that I quite enjoyed. However, I found that the story just didn’t have enough behind it to keep you engaged throughout. The leads were accused of a crime, however, it felt like there wasn’t any concern about that and the story just shifted to have random sequences that didn’t fit. Editing of the story within scenes also felt inconsistent. Also, I was genuinely confused if David O. Russell was trying to make a satire-like comedy or a soft dramatic thriller movie.

The jokes throughout were not very funny beyond Christian Bale, and there was no sense of thrill or excitement in the story. I have been a huge fan of Washington’s work so far. I don’t know what happened in this movie as his performance was badly off to me. Whether it would be him trying to give smoldering looks throughout, bad delivery of lines or just looking like a deer in headlights with a lot of the talent on screen. He belonged on screen with this talent but stood out with weaker performance.

I can’t explain how excited I was with this movie with the combination of some of my favorite acting talent and David O. Russell. I was mainly in shock as I waited for the movie to get going. With humor Russell tried to introduce throughout felt as though he was trying to make his version of a Wes Anderson movie but it didn’t work overall. I kept thinking that if Wes Anderson made this movie, with the talent that was on it, how much more entertaining it could be. This is easily the most disappointing film of the year given the heights that it could have achieved. I’m not mad at Amsterdam, I’m just super disappointed in it.

‘Amsterdam’ Rating – 3/5

Follow Bobby (the Author) on IG – @mmreview