Rules Don't Apply (2016) Reviews

• Looking Back With Mahler

  totalwonder2017-09-09

  I have so much to say about this gem that I'm not sure where to start from. Let me just say that as soon as I heard Gutav Mahler's Adagietto coming out of the Hollywood Bowl while the young virginal couple sit in the car facing the moon, I was transported to Venice, the Venice of Luchino Visconti in Death in Venice. Throughout the film Mahler's Adagietto kept magically coming back so, for me, that's the film. Art and commerce, too much and too little, life and death. Warren Beatty, writer, director, producer also stars as Howard Hughes, a character who's lived in Warren Beatty's mind for decades. He moved me. It was clear why Hughes was a character that could allow Beatty to talk about very personal things without having to do it in first person. - Mia Farrow told Michael Caine between takes in Hannah And Her Sisters: "Woody is telling me things through you" - Here Warren Beatty is telling us things about him through Howard Hughes. A mass of contradictions that can only be explained in the heart and mind of an artist. I'm already a huge fan of Alden Ehrenreich right from Tetro and here he is wonderful, tender and real. Lily Collins is new to me but Annette Bening, well Annette Bening reminded me in her few minutes on the screen that she is one of the greatest actresses we've got. Death in Venice and the last image of Howard Hughes left me with a knot in my throat. I will certainly see it again, just as sure that Rules Don't Apply will be rediscovered in years to come.

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• Candice Bergen

  fanaticusanonymous2017-09-12

  I love Warren Beatty, I always have. First time I saw him in a movie was in Bonnie and Clyde. For me his name had something magic. Splendor In The Grass, The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone, Lilith. The beauty of the man didn't seem to interfere with the character he was playing, remember All Fall Down? I waited for Rules Don't Apply with feverish anticipation, like I haven't waited for a movie since I was a kid. I sat through it for the first time, amused, surprised and delighted. But a few hours later the film started unreeling in my mind. Candice Bergen? Did I see Candice Bergen playing a secretary, handing papers, standing in the background, staring at the TV, on the phone? No, it couldn't be. Candice Bergen for goodness sake, an American icon. The thought muddled my memory of the film. I saw Rules Don't Apply again last night. Yes, it was Candice Bergen. Wow! What one will do for friends. On a second viewing I saw it as an unsentimental valentine to what it was, with a hopeful wonderous future beyond us way beyond us. I'll see it again soon and see what happens. Cheers Mr Beatty.

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• Steve Mnuchin AND Louise Linton? There goes the neighborhood.

  lee_eisenberg2017-09-07

  Without a doubt, Howard Hughes was one of the most eccentric and enigmatic figures of the 20th century. A billionaire who went into the movie business, he left his mark on a number of industries. Martin Scorsese focused on part of Hughes's career with "The Aviator". Now Warren Beatty does so with "Rules Don't Apply". This one looks at a relationship between one of Hughes's starlets and her driver in the 1950s. It's not a great movie, but infinitely better than Beatty's last movie, the crime against humanity "Town & Country" (which rivaled Woody Allen's worst movie "Everyone Says I Love You" in being an obnoxious fetishization of neurotic New Yorkers having affairs with each other). The only thing that drags this movie down is the appearance of two people: Steve Mnuchin (as a banker) and Louise Linton (as a potential starlet). They're now husband and wife. He's Treasury Secretary, while she Instagrammed a photo of herself and tagged the designers, and proceeded to make a let-them-eat-cake remark when a woman criticized her use of a government plane for travel (this was after she published a book purporting to tell of a year that she spent in Zambia, but the entire nation of Zambia disdained it as a promotion of the white savior trope). Anyway, it's a good movie otherwise. Aside from Beatty, it stars Lily Collins, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman and Ed Harris. To put that another way, it stars Clyde Barrow, Snow White, Carolyn Burnham, Capt. Willard, Jack Ryan, Ferris Bueller, Murphy Brown, a creepy boss and Jackson Pollock.

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• Mostly amusing.

  Hellmant2016-11-30

  'RULES DON'T APPLY': Four Stars (Out of Five) The new comedy-drama-romance from writer/director/star Warren Beatty; Beatty hasn't directed (or written) a film since 1998's 'BULWORTH', and he hasn't starred in a movie since 2001's 'TOWN & COUNTRY'. In this film he plays the very eccentric, and extremely mentally ill, billionaire Howard Hughes. The movie tells the story of an aspiring young actress, and her driver (who both work for Hughes), that begin a forbidden love affair (forbidden by Hughes). Beatty directed the film and co-wrote it, with Bo Goldman (who also co-wrote such epic dramas as'ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST' and 'SCENT OF A WOMAN'). The movie also costars Alden Ehrenreich (the new Han Solo), Lily Collins, Matthew Broderick, Annette Bening, Haley Bennett, Candice Bergen, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Martin Sheen. It's received mixed reviews from critics, and it bombed at the Box Office. I liked it though. Marla Mabrey (Collins) was an aspiring actress, that moved to Hollywood (in 1958) to work for Howard Hughes (Beatty). Mabrey was a devout baptist, from Virginia, that had never done so much as have a drink of alcohol, or engage in premarital sex. She was accompanied by her strict mother, Lucy (Bening). Right away Mabrey and her driver, Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich), are immediately attracted to each other. Frank has a fiancé though, and an affair between the two is strictly prohibited (by their employer, Hughes). Hughes' bizarre quirks, and severe mental struggles, also cause challenges for their relationship. The movie is pretty interesting, and quite entertaining, at first; then it loses it's way a little, but it does come to a pretty satisfying conclusion. The performances are all good, especially Beatty in the lead; Ehrenreich and Bennett (two very promising up- and-coming actors, that I really like right now) are also good, but severely underused. Beatty's direction is adequate enough, but the script definitely could have used a few more rewrites. I still found the film to be mostly amusing, and somewhat interesting. Howard Hughes was a very fascinating person though, that deserves a much better movie ('THE AVIATOR' was much better). Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M9osPwjfbM

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• Great Performances and Interesting Characters Battle an Extremely Unfocused Movie

  CANpatbuck36642017-04-26

  *Minor Spoilers Ahead* We get a brief scene to begin in 1964 where Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) is confined to a bed in a hotel. His handlers Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), Levar Mathis (Matthew Broderick) and Nadine Henly (Candice Bergen) wait for him to respond to some false allegations. A biography of Howard has been written with some outlandish and scandalous claims and T.V. personalities are waiting by a phone for his response. We then go back to 1958 and we are properly introduced to Marla Mabry (Lily Collins) and Frank Forbes. We also get to meet Marla's inquisitive mother Lucy (Annette Benning). They're both excited, prospects for Marla's future look bright but Howard's reputation precedes him. Frank has his own agenda for being in Hughes' employ (Frank wants to pitch him on a potentially lucrative real estate deal) but he's yet to meet him as well. Frank is just working as a driver right now but he's hoping to move up. Unbeknownst to either of them, although Howard is very protective of the actresses in his employ, he doesn't have much time for them. He's got his own problems and with his declining mental state, they're not going to be solved overnight. Before I get into my critical thoughts on the plot, I'd like to say that the movie looks really good. I think everyone likes to take that nostalgic trip back to the golden years of Hollywood and the film definitely accomplishes that. The sets, the costuming and the cinematography are all really nice considering the film was made on a relatively tight budget ($25 million). While the movie looks great, I would clarify that it's being advertised wrong. If you watch the trailer, it looks like a romantic comedy with Hughes as a supporting character. This movie is more of a drama with comedic bits sprinkled in. The movie flip flops on its tone severely, it looks like its setting up a romantic comedy and then that will just get thrown to the side for an entire act of drama. It becomes Hughes vs. the rest of the world for an entire hour. I wish it had just picked one because the seeds were planted for a really solid movie either way but sadly they couldn't. What really saves this movie from itself is the performances from the actors and actresses. I have problems with how Warren Beatty wrote and directed this movie but he knocked it out of the park with his portrayal of Howard Hughes. Howard was a little before my time so I don't have any memories of him to point to but from how he was described to me, Beatty nailed all his eccentricities and the natural duplicity of his personality. I could have watched a movie with just him at the centre. This movie also cemented how talented both Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich are. Collins was the standout of the two for me but they both really helped make their characters interesting when the writing failed them. Its easy to see why Ehrenreich is on his way to bigger things and hopefully Collins will get that chance. There are lots of big actors in small parts (Ed Harris, Steve Coogan, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Hayley Bennett etc.) and they all do their jobs well. Matthew Broderick isn't in the movie as much as I expected and while he's fine, he's the one who suffers the most for the film's choppy editing. I liked most of the characters that were included in the movie. Marla and Frank are easy to like both on their own and with each other. Collins and Ehrenreich's chemistry helps that along as well. They're both very straight-laced and proper but they're both eager to shed their respective skins. You also see why Hughes seemed to have a magnetism where people are just drawn to him. I would have been cool if Marla and Frank were the centre of the movie because they are interesting. Or the movie could have been about Howard's descent into his mental illness and that would have been great. The problem is the movie refuses to pick between the two and while I appreciate the ambition to have it all, they failed to execute that plan. I couldn't believe how poorly this movie was edited together on top of that. The transition from scene to scene is beyond rough and it was jarring more often than not. Rules Don't Apply doesn't add up to the sum of its parts. That might seem like an oversimplification but that's really how I feel about the movie. You have great performances, great scenery and set dressing and characters you want to follow. Its too bad someone almost ruined the film by hacking it up in the editing room. They really swung for the fences but unfortunately they couldn't land the plane. I did kind of like the movie overall and for its good aspects I'll give it a 6/10.

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