Amsterdam Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

2. The Sloppy Editing

Despite David O. Russell again re-teaming with his reliable editor Jay Cassidy - who has earned two Best Film Editing Oscar nominations for his work with the director - something about their collaboration this time is rather off.

First and foremost, Amsterdam is way too long - countless scenes drag on far longer than they need to, and the film's third act in particular feels egregiously over-egged, wrapping up long after its point has been made.

It feels like Russell wasn't quite able to kill his darlings this time and simply allowed his cast to riff off however they liked, elongating scenes well past their point of tolerance.

Even at a more basic level, the editing is actively distracting: Russell will regularly cut between takes that retain little spatial continuity, meaning characters are doing something totally different when cutting from a close-up to a wide shot.

It's possible that Russell intentionally wanted to give the film a dreamlike, unreal style, yet when it ends up pulling the audience out of the movie, it clearly wasn't worth it.