"Warren Beatty’s keen comic sensibility and restless intelligence are very much in evidence in the delightful and old-timey 'Rules Don’t Apply,' in which Beatty plays a freakishly retiring yet imperious Howard Hughes, for decades one of the richest men in the world.
"A complement to Martin Scorsese’s 'The Aviator,' the new film (also produced, written and directed by Beatty) explores aspects of Hughes that Scorsese and his star Leonardo DiCaprio glossed over.
"Sex little concerned Scorsese in 'The Aviator,' but it’s, shall we say, a specialty of Beatty’s. He explores Hughes’s sultanlike habit, in the 1950s and ’60s, of bringing young starlets to town, keeping them pampered in gorgeous houses, paying them (via checks handed out windows), and only occasionally giving them parts in the movies he produced.
"Some actresses didn’t work at all, but might be asked occasionally to provide one-on-one entertainment to the old man — a prospect that doesn’t please the prim Baptist mother (Annette Bening) of one such little chickadee (Lily Collins). Collins’ character is a kind of Hollywood Hills vestal virgin, unable to go anywhere because she has no car, though she is assigned a driver (Alden Ehrenreich) who doubles as a chaperone.
"Beatty crafts 'Rules Don’t Apply' as a story of would-be lovers menaced by the strange background figure who connects them, and casts both of the youngsters brilliantly. (Ehrenreich, who made his breakthrough in 'Hail, Caesar!,' will soon play Han Solo in a 'Star Wars' movie, while Collins, daughter of Phil, is incandescent here in the first role she’s ever gotten that’s commensurate with her talent.) But everyone is cast into shadow by Hughes, and by Beatty’s exceptionally well-rounded performance, full of pathos and humor and mystery. This is Beatty’s first film in 15 years, a project he’s been working on for 40 years, and it’s immensely pleasing to see him in such fine form." - New York Post
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