Rules Don't Apply Review

 PG13: Sexual Material Including Brief Strong Language, Thematic Elements, and Drug References

20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, RatPac Entertainment

2 Hrs and 6 Minutes

Cast: Warren Beatty, Alden Ehrenreich, Lily Collins, Alec Baldwin, Annette Bening, Haley Bennett, Candice Bergen, Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Steve Coogan, Taissa Farmiga, Ed Harris, Megan Hilty, Oliver Platt, Martin Sheen

REVIEW: I have only seen one Warren Beatty film in my entire life and it is Dick Tracy. It was until starting to type this review that I realized he also directed Dick Tracy. Now we’re in 2016 and we haven’t seen Warren Beatty since his 1998 film Bulworth. Now Beatty has written, produced, and directed a new film on the life of Howard Hughes. Well more or less. 

An aspiring young actress (Lily Collins) and her ambitious young driver (Alden Ehrenreich) struggle hopefully with the absurd eccentricities of the wildly unpredictable billionaire Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) for whom they work.

THE GOOD: Whether you like it or not Warren Beatty is back. You can tell from the beginning of the film that this was a passionate period piece that he wanted to make and be. It is a warmly welcomed return to Hollywood and the Hollywood you know he grew up in. This film is proof that charisma doesn’t age for Beatty’s performance as Howard Hughes is as charismatic as he wasDick Tracy and that was a Disney film. What Warren Beatty provides with this carnation of Howard Hughes isn’t his eccentricity but his insanity. Beatty makes Howard Hughes an insane entrepreneur with personal rules and beliefs but with a charming heart of gold. He was suffering from OCD but the film’s primary focus is what is it like for the people who had to work for him. The majority of the random actions he does are on the cartoonish hijinks of Scrooge McDuck with a mixture of Mr. Magoo which leads to a numerous amount of comedic sequences and cutaways that were of true events.

The film is a period piece and it captures it. You see old Hollywood from the sets of movies down to the RKO pictures studios. It has a pretty old fashioned cinematography from Caleb Deschanel where the scenery of Hollywood is palm springs beach colored.

When the film isn’t centered on Beatty the young leads Ehrenreich and Collins are a delight to see more especially together. They have this romance through the whole film that is constantly tested that you feel bad for where it goes. Collins is exceptional as this fictional character, Marla Mabrey whose character is the equivalent of the Journey, Don’t Stop Believing lyric, just a small time girl living in a lonely world. From the majority of films that she was in, Collins was never the best part. She headlined such as Mirror, Mirror and Mortal Instruments but in this she's persistently innocent. You see her develop as a mature character through the film from how hopeful she was introduced but as anyone knows: Hollywood changes you. The same goes to Ehrenreich’s character Frank Forbes who is more of a straight man trying to maintain sanity in the insane world he’s thrown into. He’s much saner than the hysterical cowboy actor he portrayed in Hail Caesar! Oddly enough, this is the second film he has been in this year alone where his character has an occupation in Hollywood.

THE BAD: Rules Don’t Apply is an entertaining film to watch, but the post production for this film is damn near atrocious. The film has four editors yet the film is spliced and diced into vignettes that barely last ten to twenty seconds for each scene similar to Vine videos. There is barely any narrative for the first hour because of how choppily edited the film is. The film jump cuts so often from scenes where a character makes one comment about a situation and then  to another scene that has little to no connection to the previous scene. The film follows little to no narrative structure due to the frantic editing. There are even several instances when a character is delivering their line off screen you can tell that is recorded in ADR. The sound isn’t clear enough for it to match the majority of dialing captured and it is annoyingly constant. Believe it or not but there are CG effects of planes that are shown through the entire film and it looks incredibly cheap. 

The film’s narrative shifts gears and constantly changes tone throughout. You don’t see Beatty’s Hughes until nearly 30 minutes into the film. Before then the film focuses on the relationship between Forbes and Mabrey but once Hughes is introduced onscreen, the film becomes The Warren Beatty Show with parenthesis at the bottom saying (with Lily and Alden). It becomes more of a lighthearted film but says away from taking risks of more of the psychological breakdown go Hughes himself.

The film features a large cast that barely isn’t even around if scenes aren’t focused on Beatty, Collins, Ehrenreich, or Brodrick. Martin Sheen just strolls into in the film before you can ask if that was Martin Sheen. Ed Harris appears for one scene. So does Alec Baldwin and Megan Hilty, and Haley Bennett who I swear to God is everywhere I see in film nowadays. It is funny to see Oliver Platt in this because of Bulworth. Some actors appear more as cameos than actual characters and it feels as if they are wasted. Some cameos are more memorable than others for the big joke they have but in the end you forget their appearance in the film.

LAST STATEMENT: Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply has all the potential to be an exceptional romantic drama especially from the strong performances from the three leads if it wasn’t hampered with frantic pacing and incredibly choppy editing from beginning to end. 

Rating: 2.5/5 | 53%

Super Scene: A one-way conversation between a drunk girl and a crazy entrepreneur.