David O. Russell makes restless ensemble films about people whose behaviour can be funny and painful in the same scene. We recommend his work, though he sometimes explains the moral long after the actors have made it clear.
Fi1m perspective
The soldiers in Three Kings (1999) want gold, and Russell lets their greed be funny before making it harder to laugh. It is the clearest reason we recommend his work: he can make comedy hurt without pretending the joke was beneath him. George Clooney gives Archie Gates steadiness without making him unselfish, while Mark Wahlberg lets Troy Barlow look confused and vulnerable without asking for sympathy. Ice Cube and Spike Jonze keep this from becoming a star with three attendants. Russell needs all four men to make the greed convincing.
Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography risks making the violence in Three Kings too much of an attraction. We winced at the violence because Russell makes physical injury ugly and difficult to dismiss as routine action-film business. Robert K. Lambert's editing moves between screwball dialogue and bodily horror, giving the film its unsettling changes of pace. Carter Burwell's score adds to the unease of laughing at men intent on getting rich. These are deliberate jolts, and enough of them work to excuse the occasions when Russell seems unable to leave us alone.
The early run begins with the dark family comedy Spanking the Monkey (1994), followed by Flirting with Disaster (1996), with Three Kings the breakthrough. I Heart Huckabees (2004) closes that early phase, before a six-year gap and the return with The Fighter (2010). The later films, including Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and American Hustle (2013), take his ensemble approach into more mainstream storytelling. His use of improvisation within prepared structures helps explain the continuity: the actors are encouraged to sound immediate rather than polished. Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are among his recurring collaborators.
Our reservation is already there in Three Kings: Russell explains the decency he wants from his characters more insistently than he needs to. Clooney and Wahlberg have given him enough to trust without those tidy moral lessons. His reliance on camera movement and music to drive the emotion is effective, but it can leave little room for a disturbing idea to settle. Start with Three Kings, but not if tonight calls for comedy without discomfort.
Biography
David O. Russell is an American film director and screenwriter. Born on 20 August 1958 in New York City, he graduated from Amherst College in 1981.
Russell began his feature career with Spanking the Monkey (1994) and Flirting with Disaster (1996). He directed and wrote the screenplay for Three Kings (1999).
Later credits include The Fighter (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013), Joy (2015) and Amsterdam (2022).
