Also boring

I highly enjoyed it. The performances are great.

Really liked it. I found it very entertaining as a classic underdog/Cinderella story coming back after getting knocked down over and over again. Seeing Joy at work with scenes like making the mop to present it or doing the TV informercial was great.

Joy had been grouped in as a Oscar bait type of film for so long, that I had forgot that O. Russell is an interesting artist who was going to make the film he wanted not the one that would have the best chance at winning an Oscar. Thought it was a cool effort by him, including a soundtrack that is a big part of the film and adds to a lot of the montages, and it had a feel visually. Some weird touches like a reappearing soap opera and Joy dreaming she’s in it worked too.

Lawrence is great, I believed she was this working class underdog despite being played by beautiful international superstar JLaw. At the same time Joy while ordinary in class is NOT ordinary as she’s supposed to be more talented and desitined for success for her peers, so JLaw’s movie star feel helps make her that presence. No moment stands out as much as scenes like “you’re killing me” in SLP but for needing to carry the film maybe her best performance. Virginia Madsen was my favorite supporting role, but I liked Bradley Cooper too and Isabella Rosselini impressed me more than De Niro. But it’s a movie about one character/star in Joy

I was surprised at how hilarious parts of this movie were too. I agree Virginia Madsen was a standout of the supporting cast - her character was great.

I thought this was pretty enjoyable, liked it more than American Hustle. Lawrence carries the film effortlessly.

Joy is a very fine film which could be nearly perfect if writer and director David O. Russell more finely tuned its structure and presentation. The central story is hard to resist: the title character, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is a put-upon Long Islander trying (and often failing) to sustain a dysfunctional household including, among others, her reclusive mother (Virginia Madsen), her volatile father (Robert De Niro), and her still-living-in-the-basement ex-husband (Édgar Ramírez). A deeply guarded entrepreneurial spirit emerges when she conceives of an inexpensive and self-wringing mop, the Miracle Mop, and fights to bring the idea to fruition and transform her life. This is an archetypal and potent story of striving for the American Dream. Lawrence delivers a commanding performance. There is nary a false note as she essays Joy's metamorphosis from desperate and self-doubting to confident and engaged. And Russell plays to his established strengths—swirls of Altmanesque, borderline absurd family quarreling—and creates a few of the most captivating scenes of any film this year when Joy visits a QVC set and meets a sales executive played by Bradley Cooper. He draws a line from himself to the formidable, dream-conjuring studio heads of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, and Russell's two-parts-wondrous-one-part-cynical vision of QVC as a capitalist dream factory with a rotating stage is intoxicating.

At other points, however, Russell should have adopted what is so often hard for him: a less-is-more creative climate. Certain stylistic idiosyncrasies, such as once-upon-a-time voice-over delivered from beyond the grave by Joy's grandmother (Diane Ladd) and an abruptly abandoned series of cuts to a fictional soap opera, loudly announce themselves and register as a blend of self-conscious, overly sentimental, and inessential. And the dialogue can be too on-the-nose. Consider a line bellowed in the third act by the De Niro character. To paraphrase: "It is my fault. I blame myself. I let Joy believe she could be more than an unemployed housewife selling plastic to other unemployed housewives." The words are so acrid, so cruel, as to turn the figure of the father into a Snidely Whiplash-caliber cartoon of bad parenting rather than simply a flawed and upset man. It is a misguided shortcut in a film which, at its best, flirts with transcendence.

B+

A B might be more appropriate. This film is troubling me. There are performances and scenes I absolutely love. Jennifer Lawrence is fiery and perfect.

But then there is, say, the flash-forward at the end, which just lands with a thud.

Joy represents a comedown for David O. Russell from the heights of The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Among the strengths of those first two films are the quirky familial relationship that nonetheless manage to feel real and dynamic. Curiously, this is Joy's biggest shortcoming. Joy's family members simply aren't all that interesting or used in a particular notable way, despite enjoyable performances (especially Virginia Madsen). Where the film truly excels is the development of Joy as a businesswoman entering the world of home shopping. Within those confines, the film feels empowering and inspiring. None of this would be possible without Jennifer Lawrence, who conveys endless warmth and fiery determination as the long-suffering, innovative pillar of strength. Lawrence singlehandedly rescues the film from certain narrative shortcomings more than once; it's a great performance, one which I hope earns her another Oscar nomination. B+

I kind of agree about the flash forward. It seemed oddly spliced in there to just make Joy seem...kind of saintly? I dunno.

Indeed. "Get them a fancy hotel room! And I will call her boss!" Obviously we are meant to be moved by her championing people with tough circumstances similar to her own, but it registers as borderline patronizing and definitely a bit cheesy. Lawrence playing "older" does not help, either.

I liked it, but it's definitely a big comedown from Russell's past three films and for me probably his weakest since Three Kings/Huckabee's. Lawrence is great and Virginia Madsen gives a very entertaining performance, but everything else about this movie is so by the numbers and predictable.

By far my two favorite David O Russell films.

Three Kings actually use to be my favorite of his aswell until I saw The Fighter. Really enjoyed American Hustle and watched Silver Linings in it's entirety just last night and loved it too. To be fair I haven't seen Huckabee's in a long time, so maybe it's aged better since then, but I do remember not really caring for it.

For me, maybe due to the low expectations I had after reading reviews, this would rank above American Hustle (which hasn't aged well in my memory). I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, I'd like to see Russell ditch Coop and J-Law for his next film (Accidental Love doesn't count), although both are strong here.

BJs Grade:

B/B+

enjoyable yo

Joy is a joy. Unexpectedly good little oddball biopic (and I'm not even particularly a fan of JLaw). *A*

It's a nice movie. The first hour was uninteresting, dull even, and perhaps much like Joy's own life not worth making a film about. But once's the idea of the mop comes up, the film takes pace, and becomes an interesting tale highlighted with good performances from the whole cast. Jennifer Lawrence is great. Joy faces a lot of set backs until she finally makes it, and they are engaging to follow. Also where the use of music feels misplaced in the first half, it works splendidly in the second. I expected more from the trailer, and it's not a good as American Hustle, but once it's over, it's still another satisfying O. Russell film.

B+

I really liked this. Unlike American Hustle, JLaw's performance didn't feel exactly like Silver Linings Playbook. The scene where she first goes on air to sell her mop is probably one of the best scenes of the year. A real shame this did not do better.

B+

I loved this movie in parts and hated in others. Lawrence does give a great performance. I don't really love SLP or American Hustle but find them good movies. I found this one great in the first and second section but the final act kills the movie, that part needed trimming or different presentation method. Lawrence stands out and saves the movie from a lot of pitfalls.

6/10

Joy

Eh. There is a way to make this film and a way not to. This was the way not to. It is a clunky and, quite frankly, ugly screenplay, with only a little zip and gloss added by O. Russell. The conception of the "Miracle Mop" business is quite interesting. The early hurdles, the successes, the details, and then the larger obstacles such as the Texan fraudster. But it is so haphazardly put together, and it is sidelined by familial nonsense. The first half-an-hour is completely redundant to the film that should have been made.

C-