the audience applauded

Powerful

Fantastic!

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. To me it is great entertainment, she rated it a bit lower.The BD extras are interesting, apparently Warren Beatty has had the idea for many years, to write, direct, and star in this fictional story surrounding Howard Hughes and his many quirks. But always with a smile and a wink of the eye. It starts in 1959, Hollywood, and ends in 1964. Young aspiring starlet from West Virginia Lily Collins as Marla Mabrey is one of several invited by Hughes to try out for movie roles. Her mom is played well by Annette Bening who, of course, in real life is married to Warren Beatty.Marla's driver is Alden Ehrenreich as Frank Forbes, with a serious girlfriend back home south of L.A. And he is warned a sure way to get fired is to pursue one of the young starlets. Of course he and Marla become attracted to each other and begin a romance in secret. At one point when she is questioning what rules affect her he says, "To you rules don't apply", thus the title of the movie.Meanwhile we see glimpses of various Hughes escapades, one of his crashes of an experimental plane, his building the Spruce Goose and its successful flight, his troubles with TWA, and finally a conference phone call where he needed to prove to the world that he was alive and sane.Some will not like this movie for Beatty's portrayal of Howard Hughes, he was clearly doing it in a whimsical manner, but for me it totally worked, to me this movie is a complete success. It has a lot of other good actors including Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen.

Warren Beatty wrote, produced, directed, and starred in "Rules Don't Apply," a film about Howard Hughes released in 2016. The film also stars Lily Collins, Alden Ehrentreich, Annette Benning, Matthew Broderick, and Martin Sheen.Mainly what I got out of this film is that Warren Beatty, even at his age, has a nice singing voice. With training, he could have been quite good.Lily Collins plays Marla, a virginal non-drinking Christian who wins a contest and is brought to Hollywood by Howard Hughes for a screen test. Her driver is Frank Forbes (Ehrentreich), an ambitious young man who is hoping Hughes will go in with him on a land deal. Of course the Hughes employees are forbidden to date or romance the starlets. However, an attraction between the two does develop.I guess that was the plot, though for some reason one doesn't realize until the end it was supposed to be the main thrust of the film.In between that, we are treated to the Hughes eccentricities - not meeting the starlets right away, not giving them screen tests, and then once they are given them, not looking at them right away, his airplane flights and accidents, his refusal to meet the people giving him $400 million for TWA, his testimony before various committees, his constant viewing of his film Hell's Angels, his refusal at first to call a television network to prove he was sane after a book claiming he wasn't was published, his daddy fixation, his fear of being committed, his move to Vegas, his move to Nicaragua, his move to Acapulco, his love of banana nut ice cream, and his marriage to Jean Peters which in this film is because she won't have him committed.The film appears to have played with time. It seems to me that his airline debacles and one especially horrible accident took place before the time of the film, and the story featuring Hughes and Marla is fictional, as I believe is the book by an author who insisted he met Hughes and found him insane. There are many books about Hughes, including the fake one by Clifford Irving - perhaps this is the one referred to with Irving's name changed. Also, the TWA incident was later than the time period of most of the movie.What's good - well, the period atmosphere is great, as are the clothes and hairstyles. I am a huge fan of Lily Collins, and Marla was a wonderful role for her. Her beauty reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor, never more than in this film. Despite such a stellar cast, which also included Candace Bergen, Alec Baldwin, and Oliver Platt, the "names" really did not have very big roles or much opportunity to act.As for Beatty, he was funny at times, and the script certainly captured Hughes' eccentricities. But the film just left me feeling like I had just watched a little over two hours of not much, confused about the actual plot that seemed to feature Hughes more than these two young people, and mixed up as to the timing. I just read it is supposed to be the early '60s - well, I doubt it since he wasn't involved in RKO after 1954. The end of the film took place in the '60s.Some of the reviews for "Rules Don't Apply" stated it was an unabashed vanity project. And you would expect what from a 79-year-old man who writes, produces, directs, and stars in a film and gets into a clinch with a twenty-something? Just what we got - a film where rules don't apply.

This film of a relationship set against the influence of a disordered billionaire is engaging partly for the reason that it is not obvious exactly where it is going, but ultimately its treatment of the viewer jars.There are a number of strange moments seemingly designed to confuse the viewer, such as the implication someone is having an abortion... and then the next time we see them with their young child. Or the firing of one person who reappears without explanation in the same role a couple of scenes later. Or when a character has arranged to marry someone, and in the next scene it is announced by a third party they have married a different person. Please... this is a bad habit whether postmodern or not. Stop it.This film managed to burn through a significant amount of the goodwill it accrued, with a confusing extended whirlwind sequence related to the business tribulations of Mr. Hughes, seemingly delighting in bewildering the viewer. It made me wonder if this mischievousness suspiciously like contempt was part of the reason Mr. Beatty had not made a Hollywood film in so many years.Perhaps the truth is more simply that the film is a car-crash of editing by someone who shouldn't really be doing it. The ironic fact could have been the film would have done better with a little bit less cutting... or a little bit more! The business backdrop could have been attempted with more conviction or selectively cut whilst still making sense of the film.It's curious that none of the characters is really complete or without flaws. The girl protagonist is a fish out of water who can write songs but can hardly sing, and is trying to make a career as an actress without being able to act. Hughes is one step away from barking at the moon. And the romantic young suitor is less than charismatic or worldly, who needs to be told that baptists "are afraid of sex because it leads to dancing".A shame that the film did not manage to carry the viewer all the way through to the end and let them down instead. Hughes' antics making passengers suffer in the DC airliner turned out rather a metaphor for the film itself.

I kind of felt deja vu. I don't remember the title, but it was similar to this from the recent time, where it revolves around a taxi driver and a woman who wanted to be an actress. In this the distinct feature was the Beatty's role. After returning from the retirement, he's in business now. Directing it, as well as in one of the prominent characters. An 80 years old and still has left lots of spark in him. It was really a great comeback, yet the film is not fully convincing. Even though an enjoyable one, particularly for the awesome performances by all.The film was about Howard Hughes, but I don't know whether it is a biopic or just inspired by. Anyway, it was in the backdrop of Hollywood film industry. The story takes place between three characters, including a driver, film director and a wanted to be an actress. Triangular romance, but not exactly a romance film. Everything was drama, on the struggles between their professions. Often the narration jumps off to Hughes other business affairs. Overall, it comes back to the original path and takes us to the conclusion.A very slow screenplay. I'm used to such kind of narration, so I did not find any hard to finish it off. But it won't be same for others, especially if you are not interested in what the film plot deals with. And it is over two hours long. It covered everything it wanted to tell us. They should have avoided them, to make the film a bit quick which would have worked in its favour. Beatty is a very conscious man. Look at the Oscars, he knew the error, but while having a doubt, his partner hurried and announced the winner. I hope he makes another film very soon and stun everybody who criticised this one.5/10