American Hustle

The first really good movie since unappreciated but genial "Moonrise Kingdom" by Wes Anderson. Though traditional in its cinematic rendering, it has smart dialog, excellent acting and fast, efficient plot. The first half of the movie seems to be wrong on tempo, tangling more plotlines that the director seems to be capable to untangle but it all makes sense in the end.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Brothers Coen must have had a very beautiful childhood and comfortable youth to imbibe that much degree of misanthropy. But unlike, e.g. "Burn After Reading", in the "Inside Llewyn Davis" there is no human emotion one can relate whatsoever. The characters are drones/zombies, who populate the bleak urban desert of 1960s (sic!) America. Their motives and actions are as incomprehensible and alien as in their earlier violence porn "No Country for Old Men" and impress the viewers as little.