Joy (2015)

[BizBuzz]

Joy opens today (December 25, 2015).
 

Joy is the story of a family across four generations and the woman who rises to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.

Description via IMDB

 

I have been waiting for this one ... it stars Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper and someone I haven't seen in forever ... Isabella Rossellini.
 

[Notwisconsin]

Not a single likable character. What a hateful family.

[raezen]

It's funny you describe the family that way because I was just reading about The Family Stone in another thread and thinking about those characters made me think of a review I saw of this film.

Eta; the comparison to The Family Stone was to say that I would certainly not see this family for Christmas, and with the reviews I'm hearing here and elsewhere I think this is one I'm Netflixing.

Edited December 29, 2015 by raezen

[Shriekingeel]

Liked it a lot. I thought the family all turning on her at the moment of truth was a refreshing change from the usual tropes. It made the Joy character even more heroic. Rustle up another statue for JLaw.

[DrSpaceman73]

I saw the preview for this at another movie this week and honestly had no idea what the movie was about even after seeing the preview.

And seriously is she semi-quoting the Godfather, in a movie DeNiro is in? I couldn't tell if that was meant to be serious or a joke

[SallyAlbright]

I wasn't super excited about this one, but got a ticket to a free screening and thought I'd check it out. DOR is hit or miss for me, but this was definitely a miss. I thought it was a complete mess, to be honest. I didn't really like any of the characters and that whole "I can't tell if this is supposed to be serious or not" feeling persisted throughout. 

[Laurie4H]

I liked it. It wasn't spectacular but it kept me entertained. Jennifer Lawrence is likable and very natural on screen. I did think she was maybe too young for the part though.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Laurie4H

[AimingforYoko]

Wasn't a huge fan of the 'Soap Opera as Framing Device' bit, but it made for some laughs.

Man, was that family a piece of work. Joy was basically a parent for her parents, as well as her ex-husband.(Who did turn out to be a good ally) Her half-sister was jealous and always looking to tear her down, her only cheerleader in that family was Diane Ladd as her grandma. (Although, how the hell did her daughter turn out like that? You would've thought she would have given her a swift kick in the pants years ago.)

All in all, Jennifer Lawrence is the best thing about it. Not one of Russell's best.

[Rick Kitchen]

I wonder if any of her family members are preparing lawsuits.

[AimingforYoko]

Here's an article from Time separating the movie's fact from fiction.

Edited December 27, 2015 by AimingforYoko

[VCRTracking]

Peggy, the half-sister is fictional which is a good thing because if she were real I would imagine she would be pissed at how she's portrayed!

[tenativelyyours]

I felt like the movie tried to hard to be, I'm not sure exactly, but maybe 'cinematic'?  It definitely came off as style over substance.  I came out of it feeling they didn't trust simple story telling.  And there was such a story.  And yet it got lost in some ways for me.  I had trouble rooting for anyone other than Tony oddly enough and was glad to see how he ended up.   Edgar Ramirez really came through as the best thing in this movie for me.  Jennifer was way too dewy eyed and trembling lip (I think that was direction more than just her translation of the character) here.  I wanted to see more back bone and see more steel emerge and it never really seemed she was brought to that point.   I never felt that the movie bothered to truly let her character grow. 

 

The little overall catch up narration at the end held more interesting story than the rest of the entire film.  How great would it have been to get some of the hard knock life heavy handedness out of the way a bit earlier and go into the horrid aspects her family had in store for her.  Plus I wanted to truly see a moment where she was in the room and 'picked up the gun'.  I know in some ways that was supposed to be the scene in the Dallas hotel room but it ended up being a bit anti-climatic for me.  But comparing film to what is publicly known of the family fallouts and business deals, I think there might have been some richer material to work with.

 

And the cameo of Melissa as Joan might have been a slight in joke as well and trying to add to the reality, but instead it was kind of jarring in a sort of sideshow kind of way. 

[SeanC]

This seems like it's going to go down as the film that broke Russell's streak with critics and the Academy -- I can understand why, though in some respects I'd argue it's a better film than American Hustle. The often bleak portrayal of Joy's economic situation is well-done, and Lawrence, given the solo spotlight in a Russell film, is fantastic. Some of the best scenes are those set at QVC, which really get you invested in the whole business and make it seem like an art. Conversely, and this isn't something I've ever associated with Russell's films before, there's some really bad dialogue in this (DeNiro, especially, has a bunch of lines toward the end that are so on-the-nose I was wondering if this was some sort of parody dream sequence), and the attempt at showing Joy dealing with the initial complications of success becomes a bit bogged down.

 

Among Russell's recent films, The Fighter and The Silver Linings Playbook both featured families of varying degrees of quirky cantankerousness, but who were ultimately loving; thus, that informs how one initially expects to see the family here, but in fact Joy's family is substantially comprised of unlikeable leeches.

Edited December 29, 2015 by SeanC

[raezen]

I'm not shocked to hear it's better then Hustle, this isn't the first place I've heard that. I am finding that only a year later Hustle isn't aging all that well with people I heard gush over it when it came out.

[BloggerAloud]

My biggest problem was the plotting. Mainly every time they introduced some large hurdle, it felt like it got resolved within one or two scenes.

[truthaboutluv]

Okay yes, the family was awful...like really, really awful. The half sister was definitely the worse, so I'm glad to hear she didn't actually exist because wow. The father ran a close second though, especially because he clearly didn't realize how awful he was. That said, I enjoyed it, a lot. And I thought Jennifer was awesome. I would be totally fine with her being nominated.

 

She won't win of course, since this is shaping up to be a fight between Soairse Ronan and Brie Larson, but I definitely think she is deserving a nomination. She truly carried that entire film. Robert Di Nero had some scene stealing moments but ultimately this was Jennifer's movie. I was surprised at how ineffectual and unmemorable Bradley Cooper was.  

Edited January 3, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[Petunia13]

I don't think he had a streak. Accidental Love is still partially his.

He has to understand camp, costumes, manipulative musical cues, mugging doesn't = genius. He's gimmicky. I'm still mad at him for Silver Linings Playbook since it was basically all of the above and had a horrible message and no insight. Bradley Cooper was fantastic in it though. But I mean it was an assholish and irresponsible depiction of bipolar disorder.

[SeanC]

I don't think he had a streak. Accidental Love is still partially his.

I don't think it's relevant to include a film that he abandoned before beginning his current run of films and which was belatedly released without his involvement a half-decade later.

[Petunia13]

I do. Since it still is partially his baby even if he denies it.

We have to agree to disagree : )

[dinkysquid]

God, I HATED this movie! I was looking forward to another effort from those three actors and David O. Russell. Instead, it was a complete waste of time. Didn't give a shit about this Joy person or her rubbish mop that I've never heard of. The last time I saw so many unlikable characters in a movie was The Family Stone and I'm still trying to forget that one! 

 

What's worse is the Oscar nominations it scored. Really?!!! BEST PICTURE?!! BEST ACTRESS?!!! I think it was the worst thing I've seen Jennifer Lawrence in and I hope her agent was either fired or hung out to dry over this steaming heap of dung. 

 

Sometimes the subject matter they choose to make a move about really, really astounds me. So many of them are of the "Who Gives A Shit" or "Who Is This Person?" school. 

 

This film contained both.

[SeanC]

What's worse is the Oscar nominations it scored. Really?!!! BEST PICTURE?!! BEST ACTRESS?!!!

It wasn't nominated for Best Picture.

[annzeepark914]

Whew!  What a waste of time watching this on FIOS.  I couldn't wait for it to be O.V.E.R.  Good grief--the way they wrote the dialogue to explain the story and the history of Joy was so awkward (especially when Bradley Cooper's character was explaining QVC's evolvement to her). Ugh. Wish I had read these comments before selecting this wretched mess.  To anyone reading these comments and still thinking they might want to watch it?  Have a couple of drinks first.