Film

American Hustle

American Hustle is David O. Russell's fizzy, feather-boa'd take on the ABSCAM scandal — con artists, corrupt politicians, and an FBI agent whose ambition outruns his sense. It moves like a party slowly catching fire: big hair, bigger egos, everyone lying to everyone else including themselves. Less a heist thriller than a character comedy about reinvention, it's for anyone who likes their crime stories funny, messy, and a little heartbroken underneath the sequins.

TMDb rating6.9

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The Wolf of Wall Street2013

Scorsese's own portrait of American excess and self-delusion, told with the same manic energy and moral shrug as Hustle. Bale and DiCaprio would get along terribly well at a party neither should have been invited to.

But Three hours of unrepentant hedonism can wear you down long before the credits roll.

The Wolf of Wall Street poster

GoodFellas1990

The blueprint for every stylish, voiceover-driven crime story since, including this one — charm, betrayal, and a soundtrack doing half the storytelling. Russell's fingerprints are all over it.

But Its violence is blunter and more frequent than Hustle's; this is Scorsese unfiltered, not Scorsese-flavoured.

GoodFellas poster

Catch Me If You Can2002

Spielberg's take on real-life con artistry is warmer and more wistful than Hustle, but shares its fascination with people who reinvent themselves because the truth was never good enough.

But It's gentler and more sentimental — don't expect the same chaos or moral murk.

Catch Me If You Can poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

F for Fake1973

Orson Welles' essay-documentary about forgers, hoaxes and his own reputation as a trickster is the ur-text for Hustle's obsession with performance and self-invention — a film about lying that lies to you as it goes.

Welles at his most playful, splicing real forger Elmyr de Hory's story with his own myth-making to ask whether authenticity was ever really the point.

But It's a freewheeling essay film, not a plot — no cons to root for, just Welles winking at the camera for ninety minutes.

F for Fake poster
More like this (8)

Argo2012

Same decade, same moustaches, same government operation gone slightly rogue — but played straight, as a tense true-story thriller instead of a screwball tragicomedy.

But The humour is dryer and the stakes more solemn; it trades Hustle's messiness for procedural control.

Argo poster

Silver Linings Playbook2012

Russell, Cooper and Lawrence again, but turned toward romance instead of racketeering — same live-wire dialogue, same sense that everyone's one bad day from combustion.

But It's a much smaller, more intimate film; if you came for the con, this is a different kind of ride.

Silver Linings Playbook poster

Joy2015no page yet

The unofficial third act of Russell's Bale-Cooper-Lawrence trilogy, swapping cons for capitalism — a woman clawing her way up through a family determined to hold her down.

But Reviews were mixed, and the tone shifts between fable and drama in ways that don't always land.

The Sting1973

The elder statesman of con-artist cinema — Newman and Redford running a long grift with a grin, proof this genre's pleasures are timeless, not just a 2013 fad.

But Its pacing and style are pure '70s classicism; younger viewers might find it slow next to Hustle's jitter.

The Sting poster

Boogie Nights1997

Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling ensemble piece shares Hustle's love of period detail, big hair, and characters building empires on sand. Same wounded comedy underneath the excess.

But Its subject matter — the porn industry of the late '70s — is far more explicit and won't be for everyone.

Boogie Nights poster

American Gangster2007

A grittier, more mournful look at power and corruption in the same rough era, with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe circling each other like Hustle's cons and cops.

But It plays its crime straight and serious, without Hustle's absurdist comic relief.

American Gangster poster

Tootsie1982

Swap the crime for comedy and you get the same engine: a desperate person building a false identity to get what they want, then discovering they like the disguise more than the truth.

Dustin Hoffman's performance as an actor who becomes a soap star by pretending to be a woman is one of American comedy's great acts of reinvention, sharp and surprisingly tender.

But It's an '80s gender comedy whose politics feel dated even as its craft holds up — go in knowing that.

Tootsie poster

The Ice Storm1997

Same decade of shag carpet and moral drift, but Ang Lee plays the deception and self-delusion for genuine heartbreak instead of comic energy — the hangover to Hustle's party.

A quietly devastating ensemble piece about two suburban families unraveling over one Thanksgiving weekend, all repressed longing and bad decisions dressed as adulthood.

But It's cold, sad, and deliberately airless — nothing here to laugh at, and no wigs to enjoy.

The Ice Storm poster

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