Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldana, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Mel Fair, Vaughn Page, Bonnie Hellman, Max Perlich, Jessica Drake, Ed Bagley Jr., Colleen Camp, Gabe Doppelt, Lauren Shaw, Brandon Davis, Casey Biggs, Dey Young, Sean Avery,  Gigi Bermingham, Andre Tardieu, Casey Graf, Rebecca Wisocky, Daniel Riordan.

Orwell wrote that those who lived on small island, the tyranny of their situation eased by football and beer, were in reality existing on Airstrip One, no longer a country with a name deeply embedded in time, not a nation with a name derived from a set of people who forged and founded the laws of governance, but instead a designation of war, a description of its purpose in the ever ongoing fight against an invisible enemy.

We have so far avoided such labels, every country still finds itself by its proper name that it gives itself, more or less, but don’t be misled, we are not governed by the will of the people, we are overseen and administered by the buck and the pound, the euro and every ither denomination of business. We may as well admit that London is Shopping Centre1, that Birmingham is an outlet store, and that some are in the verge of being boarded up and left to rot. For nothing stands in the way of business, the companies own the infrastructure and set the rules…we are a commodity to be traded …your name followed by plc; and everything is on sale.

David O’ Russell’s Amsterdam taps into this by bringing to attention to the unknowing the 1933 Business Plot that could have seen the United States take a lurch into the realm of fascism and thereby altering the way we perceive history today.

A Comedy Drama Thriller, a combination of genres that allude to one of the most disturbing acts of the 1930s in a country that was already finding ways to keep out of a second World War, and one that whilst is wrapped around a wonderfully convoluted open plot, one that brings out the best in Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, and the sublime John David Washington, is unafraid to show that even in the land of the so called free, there are still people to whom would willingly sell their nation out in the name of corporations being in control.

This is a film that ripples with muscle, great direction, dynamic dialogue, actors given freedom to express their character’s flaws, and one that really gets the point of having the very best of cast inhabiting its soul, and even in the short time for example that Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, and Robert De Niro are on screen, that muscle is like a six pack placed on a rhino…you wouldn’t mess with the animal, and you would be terrified to see it work out in a gym.

Amsterdam is class, it is the green light of film making, and one that is enjoyable romp for the audience to get behind. Not a shred of disappointment to be found anywhere, this is a gift to the viewer as they unwrap each layer with poise and a grin of pleasure.

Ian D. Hall