Warren Beatty directs himself, Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich in this period romance that explores the Howard Hughes myth. 

A strange and uneven experience this… but one I personally found quite appealing. It shifts uncomfortably between farce, straightfaced romance, character study, business drama and a treatise on breaking free of societal constraints. The opening half hour moves at a tremendous clip. 20 seconds scenes knock into each other conveying whatever piece of plot information, character establishing or punchline they need to then moving swiftly away. And when the much talked about yet so far unseen Howard Hughes finally arrives (much like Rick in Casablanca – older masculine irrestible American ideal meets a sort of capitalist fairy godmother) we slow the ride right down to spend as much time luxuriating in the star turn from Beatty. Indulgent? Yes. Worth the wait? Even more so. It is a fantastically pleasing bit from the aging charmer, managing to keep Hughes’ motivation in the shadows while exposing his well documented eccentricities to harsh light. So the star crossed kids are a bit underdeveloped, they still chime with each other and look nice. So some of the plot points are muddled so you have to go on Wikipedia after to figure out how certain inconsequential characters had major bearings on the final outcome. So it probably needed one editor and one producer rather than twenty to reign it all in. You get a glimmering look at the final days of the golden age studio system, you get a nice song scene just like a movie from that period would always serve up and you get to play spot the major star in a one line role every other scene. You even, after all that pace and content, get a montage of people enjoying their packed lunches – like a little rest area in the middle. Rules Don’t Apply… never has a film been more appropriately, and if you are generous like I am about to be, admirably titled.

7