Joy (2015)

Amy, Jack, and I liked this story of a woman believing in herself despite crazy relatives and a society that kept women down. Loosely based on the life of inventor Joy Mangano, who came to prominence in 1990, its script veered so far away from Mangano's experience that director/writer David O. Russell (last blogged for American Hustle, as was star Jennifer Lawrence) said he didn't want to meet Mangano until he was finished. Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, who worked with Russell and Lawrence on The Silver Linings Playbook and were most recently in these pages for The Family and Burnt, respectively, join the cast as Joy's father and a businessman--one angry and the other ebullient. On the distaff side, Diane Ladd (she was Oscar-nominated for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), and Rambling Rose (1991); she was good in, among others, the TV series Alice 1980-81, Black Widow (1987), Primary Colors (1998), 28 Days (2000), and all 18 episodes of Enlightened (2011-13) playing her real-life daughter Laura Dern's mother, as she did in Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose) narrates the movie as Joy's loving grandmother, and hottie Virginia Madsen (sister of Michael, she was Oscar-nominated for Sideways (2004) and I liked her in Slam Dance (1987), The Hot Spot (1990), and The Rainmaker (1997), to name a few) is nearly unrecognizable in oversize glasses and neuroses as Joy's mother.

It was unclear to me where it was supposed to take place. Joy Mangano was from Smithtown on the north shore of Long Island, and shooting locations were in Boston and environs.

Credited composers are David Campbell (father of Beck, whose real name is Bek David Campbell) and West Dylan Thordson. Here's a link with four songs of original music and a cover of Something Stupid, made famous by Nancy and Frank Sinatra (here's the earlier version). But what you will come away with are the songs, listed here, especially I Feel Free, from the 1967 debut album of "super group" Cream. For the drive home, we found that video on the phone and streamed it via the car's bluetooth speakers. I love technology.

Before we saw the movie on Christmas day, Amy and her friends, all the same age as Lawrence, commented that it would be weird to see her playing a 35-year-old, and that did make me notice her flawless, dewy skin, even in the later scenes. And there are a few unnecessary moments. But 57 and 58% from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes is too harsh.