Review of Joy (2015) by Riley E — 27 May 2016

I paid 7.99 to watch this on a plane, and while I do now consider it a waste of money, I guess - comparatively speaking - it was marginally better than looking at my seat neighbor drool in their sleep for 3 hours. Lets begin.

What I Liked:

Aesthetically, it had some good things going for it. Someone really was trying to make this a decent movie, that much was clear in the stylistic choices. The editing techniques and mixing of sound and scenery were unique and elevated. The costumes and sets felt fully fleshed out and added warmth and character. And as much as I am tired of seeing her in leading roles, Jennifer Lawrence's acting was consistently strong and believable, and she did well with the role, neither overacting not underacting what was a fairly straightforward part.

That's about as much praise as I can manage to get out, I'm sorry.

What I Didn't Like:

Joy was a bad movie. And what upsets me most is that Joy should have been a good movie, but it wasn't. It was a bad movie.

As I mentioned above, the editing techniques were interesting, but not cohesive. The quirks varied from realism, to hyper realism, to surrealism, with interludes for full-on musical numbers, dream sequences, low-mo found-footage-style flashbacks, and more. Alone, a few of those things might have been enjoyable, but together, it just seemed like the director read a book on "weird things you can do with your film" and tried to include everything at once. There was too many different styles for it to feel cohesive, or for it to maintain any finesse. Instead, it came off as tacky.

What might have been worse is that they were using a completely elevated and spectacle-based style, for what was a fairly basic and unspectacular story. A lower middle class white woman invents a mop, and despite some struggles, makes a lot of money. Big deal.

Every single development was predictable as could be. Oh no, she's poor, but wait, she invented something, but wait, business is hard, but wait, she succeeded, but wait, it's even harder, but wait, she still succeeds! The end!

Plot points were stated specifically by the characters, to the point where the dialogue was almost embarrassing to listen to. Seriously, I had to sit there and endure Robert DeNiro saying "It's my fault, I made her think she was more than just a housewife, I made her think she could be successful" as if this isn't a DIRECT insult to the audience, thinking they aren't smart enough to understand the dynamics and struggles of what failure means for our main character.

I'm not five, David, so don't script the movie like I'm five.

While Joy did face hardships through the film, she overcame them with an ease that seemed completely unrealistic. She knows nothing about inventing, and yet somehow invents a fully functional mop on the first try. (Which - sidebar - they never even show her inventing it. She draws a few bad sketches with some crayons, and then in the next scene, she has a product model that she's using. The only explanation we're given is 'I made it!'. How on earth did she make that with no experience? Give me a break).

She randomly walks into Bradley Coopers office, who is supposedly the biggest marketing salesman in the entire universe, and offhandedly pitches him her mop. He is skeptical for a whole 2 minutes before beginning to "believe in her" for no reason.

And then the climax of the movie, where she is being cheated out of money and rights to her product by a man she's never met. Quite literally ALL she has to do is have a HARSH CONVERSATION with him, before he completely backs off and relinquishes all rights to the product, and agrees to pay her a fifty million dollars. As if this man was ready to cheat her out of millions of dollars, but tucks his tail between his legs simply because she pointed out that it wasn't legal.

All of the side characters were one-dimensional and never actually added anything to the plot, other than helping our main character become a business powerhouse. The asshole father, the nervous mother, the cocky businessman with a heart of gold. Spare me. I had a special distaste for this, because a lot of the side-characters were Latinxs that ended up being typified, and put into the supporting role, but never got any kind of story or development of their own. David O. Russell seems to love his whites, I'll tell you that much.

In conclusion: messy, overly dramatic, tacky, predictable, boring, uninspired, and low-low-low-key racist.