David O. Russell's "American Hustle" is cleaning up in the early part of an awards season that was meant to belong to Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave." And that ain't no con.
The movie snagged a Golden Globe for best comedy as well as acting awards for two of its stars, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. The cast won an ensemble prize at last week's Screen Actors Guild Awards, often seen as an indicator ahead of the Oscars, and the film is tied with "Gravity" for the most Academy Award nominations — 10, including best picture — drawing comparisons to last year's best picture winner, "Argo."
"American Hustle" also resembles "Argo" in terms of style. Both are stories based on events from the 1970s, but Russell's film is mainly a screwball comedy caper that reminds the viewer from the get-go that only "Some of this actually happened."
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