YMMV / Amsterdam (2022)

• Audience-Alienating Premise: After a dismal opening weekend that led most analysts to declare it dead on arrival, this trope was cited as the reason why it failed: the movie contains a very quirky and convoluted plot that's about five different genres all at once, meaning that 20th Century had trouble marketing it and instead focused most of its advertising efforts on its All-Star Cast, which didn't really drum up audience interest. Add to that its 134-minute runtime ^note This might not seem that long, but it's generally agreed among the film industry that the ideal length for comedies is under two hours long, mixed-to-negative critical reviews, and director David O. Russell's already contentious reputation from the many, many physical and verbal assault allegations that have been levied at him, this resulted in a film predicted to accumulate losses of up to $100 million for the studio.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Tom and Libby being such fanatics of Adolf Hitler that they trimmed one of their bushes into the shape of a swastika is so absurd that it's worthy of some laughs. Things like this are also Truth in Television for many Nazis with the means.
• Franchise Original Sin: Amsterdam contains many problems that David O. Russell's earlier semi-biographical crime comedy, American Hustle had: a very loose and convoluted retelling of an audacious, obscure real-life story with a cast of quirky characters, comedy that made heavy use of improvisation from the Ensemble Cast of actors, and a fast-paced, "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer approach. But American Hustle was fairly tightly-plotted and it was clear that the story was planned out in advance, so its complicated plot and Gambit Pileup shenanigans made sense, while Amsterdam seemed to have been written as filming went along, leading to its plot being far more disjointed. The central four characters of American Hustle were properly fleshed out, each with distinct character traits, flaws, and a story arc that justified their quirks, with the supporting characters all serving a purpose to the story. Amsterdam, meanwhile, has its main trio as being almost nothing but quirks, with little to flesh them out, and much of the supporting cast felt like an afterthought. Additionally, at the time that American Hustle was released, Russell was still a respected filmmaker with many accolades to back his reputation and in the midst of a comeback, but in the nine years since then, had seen his standing in the community fall massively after receiving accusations of physical and verbal assault from people who have worked with him, meaning that critics were much more willing to be critical of him when Amsterdam was released.
• Genius Bonus:
  • One of the Committee of Five's aliases is the "Committee for the Sound Dollar." The United States abandoning the gold standard was one of FDR's major reforms, which allegedly galvanized the conspirators behind the Business Plot.
  • Irma St. Clair is an Afro-American woman escaping racial segregation by pretending to be (white) Portuguese. This may seem absurd but it really happened during the early 20th century.
  • Libby offhandedly mentions that she is a member of an all-female Vril society, and that she and her "sisters" have seances using drugs to contact otherworldy beings. This is a reference to a real-world Urban Legend that such a society (comprised of the mediums Maria Orsic, Traute, Sigrun, Gudrun, and Heike) allegedly existed in pre-Nazi Germany, and was the driving force behind the rise of Hitler. This hints to the fact that Libby and her husband are in cahoots with the Committee of Five.
  When I get together with my sisters at the Vril Society, we hold a seance where we let our hair down, and it acts as a kind of antenna. It allows us to communicate with the greater race. Honestly, they come from a different galaxy, it’s truly fascinating.
  • Liz Meekins gets killed at exactly thirteen minutes into the runtime. Thirteen is famously known for being Taylor Swift's favorite number.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In-Universe. Burt cannot even imagine a worse war than the 1914-1918 war he fought in; he refers to WWI as the big war and alludes that it's the worst humanity could ever get to, and when other characters later (in 1933) bring up the rising of fascism in Europe, he clearly can't grasp the horror of what that would lead to. This becomes painful to think about when you realise that a decade later, World War II would break out (both In-Universe and has in Real Life). Also, the main characters' wish to move back to Amsterdam: at the end Harold and Valerie are about to go there but decide to go elsewhere only at the last minute — if they had moved back to Amsterdam, they would have lived in yet another World War a few years later!
  • Tom Voze's exposition about how horrible Cuckoos are for murdering their (nest-)siblings, becomes much darker when he's revealed to be poisoning his own sister - he almost murdered his own sibling!
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Even though it's been fifteen years since they've last seen her and their relationship didn't end well, Burt and Harold bear no bitterness towards Valerie when they see her again and quickly hit it back off with her. They're more concerned for her health if anything.
  • When Valerie's vertigo kicks in when they're going to visit Dillenbeck and she stumbles off the steps of his house, Burt and Harold immediately ask if she's alright and go to help her, and they take her hands in order to help her walk.
  • Burt rattles off several of the things he loves when narrating about how he fought for after foiling the coup. He lists the obvious ones, like his friends and his love interest Irma, but also some smaller things too, like his secretary and his glass eye.
  • After Burt finally comes to terms that Beatrice doesn't love him anymore and rejects her, Valerie and Harold share a Group Hug with him in an attempt to comfort him.
  • Valerie declaring her love for Harold in front of everyone and kissing him. It's especially heartwarming given that this is the 1930s, where racism was much more rampant than it is today, and that Valerie had previously wished that she'd never fallen in love with anyone because of how much it hurt.
  • Part of the reason why Burt stays back in America instead of joining Harold and Valerie in the end is so that he can make his country into a place where his best friends can come back and be together, no matter how long it might take.
• Love to Hate: Libby is a stuck-up Rich Bitch who helps orchestrate the Committee's plot and follows the fascist ideologies of the dictators she and Tom idolize, but Anya Taylor-Joy plays her with a smug and Faux Affably Evil demeanor that make her very fun to watch.
• Memetic Mutation: Liz Meekins' death quickly became a meme following the film's release due to many finding Taylor Swift getting run over by a truck to be hilarious, especially among people who don't like her. A GIF of it quickly made the rounds across social media following the film's release, and it's generally used as a reaction to express frustration over something.
• Narm: Liz Meekins' infamous death scene is so sudden and overdramatic that it loops around to being funny, with the shaky camera work and editing not helping matters.
• Narm Charm: While a fascist conspiracy to overthrow American democracy being foiled by The Power of Love does sound very silly (and it is, to an extent), Burt's grand narrated speech about love manages to be touching enough to make it effective.
• One True Threesome: Some viewers saw potential for a three-way relationship between Burt, Valerie, and Harold due to their close friendship, Harold and Valerie's canonical attraction to each other, and the strong onscreen chemistry between their actors, with it being a common assumption that they all hooked up at some point during their time in Amsterdam.
• Squick: The audience is treated to some very lovely shots of the injuries that Burt and Harold sustained during the war, along with Valerie pulling little pieces of metal shrapnel out of their bodies.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Some people felt that Burt and Valerie should've had more direct interactions, given that they're alike in many aspects (they're both eccentric Bunny Ears Lawyers who are seen as outcasts from their rich families) and that Margot Robbie arguably has better chemistry with Christian Bale than with John David Washington. However, they never have a one-on-one interaction with each other and their personal friendship, unlike Burt's more extensively-developed one with Harold, is barely touched on.
  • The big flashback segment of the trio meeting each other, becoming friends, and their post-war stay in Amsterdam is arguably the most well-liked part of the film even among its harshest detractors, with many people saying that the movie should've focused solely on their time in Amsterdam instead of what it's actually about.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: While most of the Ensemble Cast was criticized for being unusually stilted and wooden, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington put in a lot of genuine effort and make the central trio's bond as True Companions feel completely believable and real, with Bale's lovably eccentric performance being especially singled out for praise.

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