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David O. Russell made a huge splash at the Sundance Film Festival with his debut picture, earning the Audience's Choice Award. In the short time since then, his movies have just gotten better. He has a way of portraying relationships that no one else can seem to master, giving his characters a really thick depth. But watch with a grain of salt; some of his content can be pretty disturbing.
The Three Kings, more about the gold,
not so much with the frankincense and myrrh.
Spanking the Monkey (1994) A terrible title for a wonderful film. It's a strange combination of a black comedy and a relationship tragedy all rolled into one uncomfortable feature. But despite its disturbing content and taboo subjects, lies a brilliant movie. It's the story of a boy who is forced by his father to come home and take care of his injured mother during his summer break from medical school. His mother, currently suffering from a broken leg and permanently suffering from a miserable marriage, relies on her son for everything from each meal to help on the toilet and in the shower. Their relationship suddenly turns into this sick, incestual ordeal that will make you squirm in your seat. The film was released during The Sundance Film Festival and while it received excellent reviews, also created a lot of controversy surrounding to it's financing. The film was mostly funded from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which caused a great many people to question why the U.S. government would support a film that features incest, rape, masturbation, and drug abuse to name a few. It's called filmmaking people. Deal with it. (Written and directed by David O. Russell)
Flirting With Disaster (1996) After the success of his first film, it is logical that financing for a second film would be easy. And as the money came in it seems that the budget was mostly focused around casting, because the cast assembled for this film is fantastic. The story is a complex study of relationships of every kind. The premise is a man, adopted as a child, who sets out to find his birth parents. The trek turns into a cross country adventure as he, his wife, his newly born baby, and a social worker go from state to state and person to person in search of his natural kin. Absolutely wonderful movie that has just the right balance of comedy to not make it silly. (Written and directed by David O. Russell)
Three Kings (1999) Another wonderful film by Russell, but this time with a different approach. This is one of a few films to deal with the Persian Gulf War and accurately portray the media circus that it was. The story revolves around four men. These four men hear of millions of dollars in gold bullion stashed in enemy bunkers and devise a plan to steal it. On the heist, they catch a glimpse of how the war is really effecting the people they are trying to defend. Unable to just turn their heads to what's happening, they drop their plan and try to save the people of the nearby small village. The film was wonderfully shot, using different film types and developing techniques to project a scale of emotions. Russell used a handful of people who, on both sides, experienced the war first hand, adding credible authenticity to the story. (Written and directed by David O. Russell)
I Heart Huckabee’s (2004) This is a husband and wife detective team with a twist. They help you figure out what every is keeping you up at night, like what the meaning of life is. It stars Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, and Dustin Hoffman. It is set to come out sometime in 2004, and we will post more info as we get it. (Directed by David O. Russell)
Truth, justice,
and the pursuit of e-mail.
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