Following The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, Director David O. Russell scores a hat trick with American Hustle. Russell finds and executes some of the best and most eccentric character driven dramas released in the past 10 years. He’s found these amazing stories and brings them to life with a gentle but sharp eye and a cast that is a studios dream come true.

American Hustle brings us to New Jersey in the late 1970’s where a con man named Irving and his mistress Sydney get dragged into a FBI investigation lead by the bull headed Richie DiMaso. Irving and Sydney had a pretty good thing going until having the unfortunate timing of crossing Richie’s path. They kept things clean and simple…manageable scenarios for conning money out of people. When Richie smells blood in the water, he leverages the two into helping him nab crooked politicians of New Jersey. With each minor win he gets with Irv and Sydney, Richie casts the net larger and larger pulling in all sorts of heat towards them. Mayors, congressmen, the mob and Irving’s wife, Rosalyn, are all dragged into the chop. Relationships are tested and twisted as Richie keeps fanning the flames.

Much like how Martin Scorsese loves working with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell has his favorites too. Christian Bale (Irving), Jennifer Lawrence (Rosalyn), Bradley Cooper (Richard), Amy Adams (Sydney)  and Robert De Niro (mobster Victor Tellegio) show up and deliver award quality acting for him again. This is a hell of a cast of characters. The introduction of Irving and his girl Sydney is great. They exist on a taboo plane of existence. They work together by scamming people and their personal life is sneaky too as Irving is cheating on his wife Rosayln with Sydney.  There’s a  gleeful playfulness when they’re together. But Sydney, oh Sydney! Brilliantly played by Jennifer Lawrence, Sydney is a real nutter with a rambling mind and mouth to match. Irving does love her deeply, but his relationship with Sydney is different. When the two women cross paths, sparks fly and the boundaries of their relationships are stressed to the breaking point. It’s actually pretty sad to see Irving pulled apart from the two he loves most. The movie pivots on these three mostly, with Richie being the antagonist of it all. Their plans and their fights are a thing to behold. It’s a wacky movie, but it’s held together by the actors. I can’t really do their work justice. It all comes together in a brilliant and satisfying ending. Roles are changed, lives are changed and remorse and amends are reached. Characters at odds come together and break apart. When it’s all over it feels like something really substantial has happened. Those still standing at the end are changed forever.

With three amazing movies back to back, I can’t wait to see what David O. Russell has up next. It seems like he just hits the ground running after each production ends. The characters in his movies are some of the most memorable and his actors put out their best work. Everyone should be jumping at the chance to work with him and see what he does next. I think he’s one of the best working in filmmaking today. He knows how to surround himself in brilliance.