What a glorious mess!

It's the first film by David O Russell on 8 years, and man, does the rust show.

He wrote & directed this and co-produced along with singer Drake (who lost approximately $10M of his money - the price of buying a Producer's credit, I suppose)

Based on a narrow thread of an actual alleged semi-plot to oust President Roosevelt (The Business Plot, 1933) where a group of wealthy American businessmen (J P Morgan, Irenee Du Pond, the CEO's of GM, General Foods and others) who wanted to prop a popular retired US General in place of the sickly Roosevelt ('on convalescence'), likely to restore the Gold Standard FDR eliminated months before (a great mistake to this day) As the plan became known publicly it was quickly routed and a deal was made to not charge the powerful conspirators in exchange for their unbridled support of FDR's upcoming major social economic policy, the New Deal. All quiet on the West Wing front since that back door agreement!

In David O Russell's hands, the plot was pumped up to heavily shade the Trump Presidency as a Fascist dictatorship. A little too heavy for a comedy, but that's just one problem with this cinematic mess.

The cast is, in fact, the Gold Standard of Hollywood, from Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, & Robert De Niro. Also we have Denzel's son, John David Washington, along with Anya Taylor-Joy, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldana et al.

Taylor's part is small but I thought we'll acted up until a horrific incident that I am sure David O Russell originally wanted Lily Tomlin to play lol (YouTube it!)

This ensemble makes the film passable, tho with varying degrees of performance qualities amongst them.

Christian Bale dives to deep behind prosthetics and nuance. His character comes off as bland and uninteresting, tics aside.

John David Washington, in possession of his dad's voice, acts like he's in 'Tenet 2', all in as contemporary, monotonous and knowing. Quite startling acting for a period piece, especially alongside Bale's 'Groucho Marx' acting.

Margot Robbie, however, is absolutely luminous! Is she better suited as a brunette, as her character's look is here? Again, a contemporary feel to her dialogue and performance for a period piece but I've never seen her look so stunning, and stunning she is!

Her character tho? Not so much.

Anya Taylor-Joy, too, appears out of Vogue 1933, a sharp talent who's performances I always enjoy. She's come a long way since 'The Witch'!

De Niro does his thing as he has done in his previous work in Russell's films, and that's fine, I suppose. Nothing fresh or energetic as some of his earlier work. To me, he's been phoning it in since Heat/Casino.

And Mike Myers was in the same prosthetics as his TV game show reboot of 'The Gong Show' character! WTF Mike, you're really 'not worthy' in this!

The first hour of 'Amsterdam' I could barely sit through, a completely muddled plot going nowhere fast, and so many directions and diversions until the last third when everyone converges for the 'General's speech' sequence.

Overall, the parts of this film are far greater than the sum (and only some, really) that make this interesting failure a curiosity to seek out to judge for yourself when it's on Netflix or Prime, etc.

Until then, see 'Silver Linings Playbook' or 'American Hustle' or 'Three Kings' as finer example of Russell's work.