Rules Don't Apply (2016)

I am glad this film is now out on DVD and pretty soon it will pop up on HBO. Now maybe the word of mouth will get out that this film is very good.

In this film Howard Hughes life is explored. It focuses on his life from around the late 1950's. It does not however focus in his life & death. In fact Howard Hughes death isn't covered at all.

In this film Small-town beauty queen and devout Baptist Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins), under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty), arrives in Los Angeles. At the airport, she meets her driver, Frank Forbes, only two weeks on the job and also from a religiously conservative background. Their instant attraction not only puts their religious convictions to the test but also defies Hughes' number one rule: no employee is allowed to have an intimate relationship with a contract actress.

Everyone gives an exceptional performance. Keep in mind this film is not made for the Comic Book Movie fan. This film is made for adults by Adults. Please if you like to see something good then watch them and give it a chance!

Fmovies: I'm surprised that Warren Beatty returned to directing after almost 20 years with another film about a disturbed man who is falling apart. Even more, why make another Howard Hughes film? You'd learn more about Hughes by watching the Tommy Lee Jones film or "The Aviator." Mr. Beatty was trying to be contemporary with the editing of the film (4 editors by the way) by cutting away from a scenes abruptly that were starting to get interesting.

The pace of the romance between the two lead characters was uneven and thus hard to believe. The costumes, production design, cinematography and much of the acting was great, but the narrative was confusing. There was a lot of interesting quirkiness and style, but because the point of view was scattered, it was hard to really get to know the characters.

Really hope in time I'll realize that I just missed something, but as much as I hate to say it, this was somewhat disappointing. Any Beatty film will certainly have much to praise, and this is no exception - looks great, sounds great, great acting from an incredible cast, many funny moments - but the story doesn't hold up to the superior levels of the other areas. Out of respect for not giving anything away, I'll be vague, but there are a couple of major plot points that are rather forced. I'll trust that the protagonist's eccentricities are accurate reflections, but by the end, I just didn't care and many moments felt more like eccentricity for the sake of eccentricity. I remain such a fan that not sure if I want people to agree with this review or convince me that I'm wrong. My apologies, Mr. Beatty. I'll see anything you make and hope this won't be your last, but overall I didn't find this whole equal to the sum of its parts.

Rules Don't Apply fmovies. Warren Beatty, who I consider to be a true Hollywood legend and quite an icon, has always impressed me with his body of work. I have always admired him as an actor and maybe even more so as a writer/director. As many of you know, he has not directed a film since 1998's Bulworth and not acted in a film since Town and Country in 2001. Over the years there was always some talk about Beatty perhaps making a comeback film and emerge from the shadows and quietness of what at the time seemed to be almost like a retirement from the movie business for him. It had been speculated for years that he was planning on doing a film about Howard Hughes, and not only till a few years ago was the project actually green-lighted and news was that they had a cast and that Beatty would not only be starring in the film, but also having written the screenplay and was going to serve as director. This was very promising news to a fan like me because unfortunately I had never been able to see one of his films on the big screen, so I was hoping this one would be my first. The first trailer for the film emerged during the Summertime when you had your big budget films on display and while the trailer looked a little different than what Beatty has done before, I still felt that it looked like a film with promise and I was bound and determined to see it on the big screen when it arrived. Now as I am writing this, I have just come from a screening for his new film, Rules Don't Apply, and I must say that I was anticipating a light screwball comedy that would be more fun than anything else, but what I got was a film that will definitely be in my top 10 list by the end of the year and was another film that far exceeded all my expectations and turned out to be one of the year's best. The film's trailer truly did not do it justice and unfortunately a lot of the mainstream film critics are giving it average to mostly lukewarm ratings, which if I have to be honest, I don't truly understand and perhaps they saw a different film than I did. The other unfortunate thing is that Rules Don't Apply, is flopping at the box office and is going to lose the studio a lot of money much like Town and Country did back in 2001, which is why I initially thought that Beatty had retired from movies. Do not let any of this deter you whatsoever from seeing this great film though. I simply say this more as unfortunate news and to further add to the argument that what is popular and does well at the box office these days has no accounting for any artistic merit and what are sometimes fantastic films will unfortunately flop and not connect, or appeal to today's audiences. I think that alone is one of the key elements why this film is not doing well, simply because a millennial audience, who in a lot of ways controls what is big and what does well at the box office would simply not be able to connect with this film on any level. Many of those viewers would not know who Howard Hughes is, or really care for that matter and for a lot of them they unfortunately have probably never heard of Warren Beatty, or seen any of his films either. Also a period piece film that is far more intelligent than what the trailer would seem, would simply not appeal and go far beyond this audience's limited and sometimes unfortunately dull attention span. Luckily for anyone else who loves a good film, you are in for a real treat here. Beatty is back in full force delivering a brilliant performance that at times includes elements of a comedic nature, but also in a way he slyly pokes fun at Hu

With Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply, there may be some high expectations going in, and it's not because people are looking so forward to finally seeing Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins in a (semi) romantic coupling (though they are equal parts charming and serious in this film, able to go to awkward comic moments and those Big Dramatic Confrontation Moments in ways that are wonderful and surprising and shows they have a good director at the helm).

And it's not even because people may be clamoring for another movie about the genius-cum-iconoclast-cum-megalomaniac Howard Hughes, since, well, we should have practically everything we'd need to see in Scorsese's The Aviator (which, by the way, these two movies share not only a couple of set pieces, at very different time periods in history, but Alec Baldwin too in a fairly important supporting role).

No, I know I expect more of Warren Beatty after an 18 year absence (lets forget Town & Country for now) and the biggest problem is that he had final cut and put something together that is 25% a choppily edited mess. Whether he cut down for time, I'm sure I don't know, though having *four* credited editors is never a great sign.

Having said this, however, it's also a case where the parts are better, more entertaining, more charming, more engaging, more... just MORE than the whole, and one of Beattys underrated gifts as an actor and director - off kilter comic timing and eccentricity - is on excellent display here. It's a genuine if somewhat flawed and all over the place romantic comedy with some genuinely moving overtones for being essentially about... Being kind to people.

If this is his swan song, it could've been worse.

Rules Don't Apply is a showbiz comedy about two star-crossed lovers. But it might just as well be director, producer and star Warren Beatty's mantra. Every so often the man steps out of whatever dimly lit bungalow he lives in and comes out with a big, bold project that stands quixotically and defiantly against the mores of the time. Reds (1981) grated harshly against the easy money proclivities of the Reagan Era while Dick Tracy (1990) looked backwards through the pulpy pages of loose leaf Americana while we looked on towards a post-communist world. Bulworth (1998), arguably Beatty's most radical film ripped off the facade of the yuppie, blue dog Clinton administration, revealing deep fissures between white liberals and the dreams differed of black Americans (albeit as told through the coddled, tone-deaf worldview of a limousine liberal). Now with Rules Don't Apply, Beatty is in full navel-gazing mode, making a movie so thematically simple that it's conventionality is its own form of radicalism.

The film details the brief stint in La La Land of one Marla Mabrey (Collins), the recently crowned Apple Blossom Queen and new RKO starlet on-call. She arrives fresh-faced from Fresno and encounters naive company driver Frank Forbes (Ehrenreich) who, like Marla, hopes to meet their employer Howard Hughes (Beatty). Problem is, this is 1958 and Howard Hughes has not spoken to anyone outside of his close circle of confidants for years. Caught in a state of arrested development, Frank and Marla begin a chaste attraction which alters their futures in unexpected ways.

Beatty portrays Hughes as a full on Falstaffian character; full of wit and intelligence but far too reckless and in-his-own-head to be taken seriously. He fits himself ever so awkwardly into the center of the action, allowing an ensemble cast of A-listers to orbit around the chaos that Hughes creates. It's an interesting mess to be sure. Hughes is simultaneously the most interesting character in the entire movie and the broadest; less a person than an event like the sinking of the Titanic.

Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich simply can't hope to compete for attention and screen time, even if their pleasant mugs immediately bring to mind James Dean and the luminous Audrey Hepburn respectively. They make the most out of their piddly roles with Collins managing to warble the catchy old-fashion title song and make the whole scene seem relevant. Yet when compared to the exacerbated gasps of Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Steve Coogan and Matthew Broderick, our two lovers are completely washed out of the film's more interesting excesses.

And there are some pretty fun excesses. There are solid if low- hanging comedic setups, snappy dialogue and goofy sequences of frenetic action which would otherwise seem slight if not for the fact that comedies are straight-up never made like this anymore. They also keep the ball rolling, making sure everything makes sense without much dead air.

In a career spanning nearly seventy years, Warren Beatty is about the closest thing to Hollywood royalty you got still working today. If you ignore his filmography, and have the patience to sit through a few stale jokes, Rules Don't Apply is basically a lesser Cafe Society (2016). Yet considering Beatty's work is often ahead of its time, Rules Don't Apply is basically a 90's Ganz/Mandel comedy mimicking the sensibilities of the 30's taking place in the 50's starring a guy not relevant since the 80's.