Joy

David O. Russell is an interesting director with on-and-off successes, and has in particular been responsible for a lot of Oscars buzz over the past few years. So it comes as no surprise that his latest film, Joy has already worked its way onto prediction lists. 

Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) is a divorced mother whose ex-husband, Tony (Édgar Ramírez) lives in the basement, and whose mother, Terry (Virginia Madsen) spends the entirety of her day sitting in bed watching soap operas. Joy’s father, Rudy (Robert De Niro) owns a local mechanic shop, and whilst he’s been key in her inventive fruition over the years, he’s less than helpful when he moves back in with the rest of them. To call this family dysfunctional is an understatement. Despite juggling all these responsibilities, Joy comes up with a self-wringing mop invention and we follow her as she tries to get it funded and sold in a less-than-hospitable marketplace. 

Russell’s past films I Heart Huckabees and Silver Linings Playbook are personal favourites of mine, although I thought that on many levels American Hustle just didn’t work. So I had a decent idea what to hope for with Joy, namely quirkiness and character development before style. Unfortunately Joy still leans a little too heavily on the style for my liking, but more on that later. As the narrator states, this is a story about a ‘strong woman’, although if the aim is to avoid all the patriarchal bullsh*t that plagues so many female characters, perhaps it’s more constructive to consider Joy as an independent woman. Joy supports herself and all those around her, no matter how much they try to undermine her. When she invents the mop and looks for funding, she’s ultimately doing it to support her family. It’s an empowering story that is unfortunately wrapped in an unbelievable world and unlikely background characters. The latter of which is probably the film’s biggest problem. 

Joy is the centre of this film and proves to be another dominating performance from Lawrence; she’s caring and ambitious with enough vulnerability to stay interesting, however the people around her come off as caricatures. It feels like they’re placed in the story solely to pull Joy down and hence provide motivation for her to spring back from. Because of this, they all kinda clump together in an unbearable mass of failed character development. Robert De Niro is good, but Rudy doesn’t really emanate away from what could be considered a stock De Niro performance. Joy’s mother is a loner, hence becomes the butt of many jokes, her sister is just downright annoying and Cooper’s Neil isn’t nearly as fleshed out as he could have been. I also would have liked to see Mimi - probably the next most important character after Joy - become a bit more than just a mentor with a couple cheap lines, and whilst Trudy is a great character, she could have become more worthy of an Isabella Rossellini performance. Tony is one of the few characters you can actually connect with, a sincere support for Joy that doesn’t just turn into a ‘let-the-man-handle-this’ situation, but again he doesn’t really appear often enough to develop as a character. 

My other major issue with Joy is the sense that it’s been constructed as style for the sake of style. Through the costuming and set-design, Russell tries to create this pastiche tribute to the late 80s/early 90s, and whilst it’s not nearly as obnoxious as with American Hustle, it still feels little more than a hollow facade. Although I do think they did a great job recreating the boom of television shopping, helped along by a great sense of humour; and I must say Joy is a fantastically funny movie, which does help to alleviate the issues to some degree. I think the comparison to soap operas is an interesting move - although it possibly adds to the character development problems - and the cinematography is, at times quite beautiful. However I just wish they’d kept the camera still a bit more often! This film is full of ridiculous pans, dolly moves and jibs that do nothing other than draw attention to themselves and honestly spoilt some moments for me because they were just so unnecessary. 

Joy is a funny, at times touching, and ultimately very driven movie. Joy Mangano’s story is worth being told and Jennifer Lawrence nails the role. It’s a shame that it falters due to some directorial decisions and poor character considerations because this had the potential to be one of the best films of the year.

The Intern

Nancy Meyers has had a string of box-office successes since her debut with The Parent Trap seventeen years ago. Her films have found her an audience that admire her entertaining, generally safe stories. Now she's back after a six year break with The Intern starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro. 

Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) finds herself at the helm of an increasingly difficult to manage position. She's the founder and CEO of an e-commerce startup fashion label which has rapidly grown from it's humble beginnings to a staff of hundreds. The company is about to trial a community outreach program that offers internships to seniors. Ben Whitaker (Robert De Niro) is a widower who once used to preside over a phone directory company but has since retired.

As a way to deal with his spare time, and to get away from some not-so-desirable admirers, Ben decides to apply for the internship. After an unnecessarily awkward interview process Ben is given a position and assigned to work with Jules. This position sees Ben attempt to use new-fangled technology such as Facebook. Forced hilarity ensues. After taking a more suitable role of chauffeur, Ben becomes a sort-of pseudo-sensei for Jules. Will their relationship prosper? Will the old ways beat the new? Will Ben get off with the in-house masseuse? These are all questions the film practically begs you to ask.

It's taken me a week to finally write this review, not because The Intern was shockingly bad, but because it left me with a resounding feeling of indifference. On the one hand it manages to pull off some mildly entertaining dialogue but it backs this humor up with thinly-veiled condescending assumptions about the technological ability of older generations. The film seemingly promises to address this stigma, but is ultimately happy enough to just go along with it, under the guise of a "the old way is best" attitude. Meyers is proficient enough to avoid the seemingly obvious ending, but it's too small a band-aid for a resoundingly bland film.

The performances are generally fine, but nothing special. Character development across the board is divided into various stereotypes (think contemporary nerd, new-age business etc) that bring little interest to the film's story. However De Niro and Hathaway manage to pull The Intern out of the dark depths of pre-awards season filler with an on-screen chemistry that far surpasses the reach of their individual characters. The two experienced actors are able to bring a charm to the screen that is lacking in all other aspects of the film, but is it enough to warrant seeing the film? Unless you can tell off the bat that The Intern is pandering to your demographic, probably not.

I can't call The Intern a total failure because I'm certain its occasional spark of wit and strong lead performances will find its intended audience, but sadly that isn't me. A truly forgettable experience.

War Movie Month: The Deer Hunter (1978)

Post traumatic stress disorder is one of the side effects of war that can destroy people's lives (that's not including death, destruction of property and pure terror that are also products of war). Michael Cimino's war drama The Deer Hunter is a film that succinctly looks at the trauma (albeit fictional) that soldiers go through to end up with PTSD.

The movie follows three Russian-American men, Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken) and Steve (John Savage), all from the same small West Pennsylvania steel mining town, who go off to fight in the Vietnam War. Whilst there, they are captured and made to play Russian Roulette. They escape and Michael returns to America to find that Steve has been terribly injured and Nick is nowhere to be seen.

Michael feels distant and removed from the town he has come back to. This is something that a lot of soldiers have reported feeling once they return from a warzone. This is nothing compared to how the character of Steven feels. Not only is he mentally scarred from the torture that he went through, but he is ashamed of the injuries that he sustained during the war; the loss of both legs, and refuses to see his wife. Nick becomes so unstable that he is unable to recognise Michael when he finds him in an illegal betting ring where the contestants play Russian Roulette.

One of the most remarkable things about this movie is that it was shot all on location. The small mining community of Clairton is comprised of many mining communities in the US and the Vietnam scenes were shot in Thailand, the first movie to shoot a Vietnam War film in that country. Probably one of the most amazing set pieces is the first act of the film, which is Steve's wedding. This was shot in St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church using an actual priest. This first act goes for an hour and does an amazing job at setting up the characters.

Robert De Niro is as exceptional as you would think in this movie, being on top of his game in the 70s. But his performance is hardly the most captivating. Christopher Walken winning an Academy Award might seem a strange and humourous idea for modern audiences, especially when all you can picture is his strange and signature style of talking, but back in 1978 he didn't really speak like he does now, well not as much. He gives a haunting performance as Nick (short for Nikonar) and is truly deserving of the award he won. The film features a young Meryl Streep who is nearly unrecognisable and this is John Cazale's (The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon) final film before succumbing to cancer, which he had during shooting.

Verdict: The Deer Hunter is a long slog of a movie, but is very rewarding in many ways. Fantastic performances from both De Niro and Walken.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook is an uplifting movie about mental illness. It asks us what is normal and that everyone is crazy in their own little way.

It follows the story of Pat (Bradley Cooper), who has just been released from a mental health clinic after an eight month stint there because he nearly beat to death the man who his wife was having an affair with. He is then diagnosed with Bipolar disorder, which had previously gone undiagnosed. As he is trying to re-assimilate with normal life and planning a way to get back with his wife (who has a restraining order on him) from his parents attic (played by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver), he runs into an old friend, Ronnie (John Ortiz), who invites him for dinner with his wife. Pat reluctantly agrees to come.

At the dinner, Pat meets Ronnie's sister-in-law, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who has been dealing with depression since the death of her husband. She is also a recovering sex addict, after losing her job by sleeping with everyone in her office. Pat finds a kindred spirit in Tiffany, who he finds out is able to get a letter to Pat's wife. She will only do this on the condition that Pat will dance with her in an upcoming competition. He agrees to do this because he realises it will demonstrate that he has changed to his wife.

Meanwhile, Pat's father is running a bookie after he lost his job and hopes to open a restaurant with the money that he is making from the bets. He believes that Pat is his lucky charm and makes a big bet on the Philadelphia Eagles and wants Pat to be at the game. Pat has dance practice with Tiffany, but promises to go anyway, telling Tiffany that he'll be a little late to practice. At the game, Pat and his brother get in a fight with some heated Eagles fans and he ends up missing the dance practice. Pat's father loses his bet as well as all the money he wanted to use on his restaurant. Tiffany is also mad that he didn't show up so that they could try their big finishing move. She storms over to the house where everyone is and interacts with Pat's father for the first time. Pat's father is upset that Pat is spending all his time with Tiffany, as well as the fact that he just lost all his money to his friend Randy. Tiffany proposes a parlay to Randy that he will double the cash if the Eagles win the match on the same night as the dance competition. They also have to get an average of five for their routine to win the bet.

Pat thinks that this is insane and leaves. Tiffany comes up with a plan that if Pat thinks his wife will be there then he has to do it. He is convinced by it and the two continue the rest of their training until the big night arrives. They do their routine and win the bet. Pat then reveals that he had been in love with Tiffany the whole time, thus cementing that they will be together forever.

Bradley Cooper is on the rise. After his breakthrough in The Hangover, he has followed through nicely in Limitless and this film. To know that one of his idols in acting is De Niro makes the scenes that he shares with the legend all that more touching. He plays the bipolar Pat with an intensity that is sometimes needed.

I know a couple of weeks ago I said that I was in love with Emma Stone, well I think I am also in love with Jennifer Lawrence. She is an amazingly diverse actress. I have only seen her in Winter's Bone and X-Men: First Class, but she plays two polar opposites in those roles. Here she goes in another direction completely, but that's not a bad thing. Her chemistry with Cooper is electric and heartfelt as they go through the highs and lows.

De Niro is a powerhouse as usual, but he does have a vulnerable side as Pat Sr. We gradually learn that he has OCD, which explains his rituals to do with watching the Sunday games. His character feels as though he didn't give his son the time of day when he was younger and is trying to redeem that. Other stellar performances come from Jacki Weaver, John Ortiz and Chris Tucker, who plays one of Pat's friends from the mental health clinic.

Verdict: Writer/director David O. Russell has not only written a thought provoking and emotional story, but he has also pulled together a powerhouse cast that showcases past and future talent.