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Joy: David O. Russell’s Best in Years

Meanwhile, David O. Russell’s quest for Oscar glory continues with the latest Jennifer Lawrence dramedy, Joy, which dramatizes the true story of the woman behind a miracle mop and the family challenges she faced.

By far the best thing about the movie, Lawrence once again demonstrates her versatility and talent as a young actress. A nomination seems almost assured, unless the move of Vikander and Mara from supporting to lead bumps her out. But even if she does not yet deserve a second Best Actress statuette, her performance really is the best part of the otherwise entertaining and interesting movie. She’s powerful and determined but also sensitive; she does not take no for an answer, she does not give up, and she is convinced that something great is in store for her. No challenge is too large.

And while I have never responded well to David O. Russell’s hokey over-direction in films like Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, this movie has to be his best shot in years (but not if you read other Oscar prognosticators’ views, anyway). But the movie is the one that is least distracted by obscenely overwrought costumes or wigs (Hustle), overacting (The Fighter), or essentially ridiculous stories and unbelievable characters (Silver Linings Playbook). This time, Russell is more staid, more steady, and, as a result, infinitely more compelling. You care about Joy because she is a strong woman who is following the quintessential American dream. And you are able to stay in the movie because Russell keeps the fantastical sequences to a minimum, and mostly to working levels, when Joy dreams that her life is a soap opera. Allegorical if somewhat overstated, the soap opera works and is much more real than Russell’s past attempts.

The field is crowded for Best Picture, which will make it difficult for it to get in. But I suspect that the movie will find more favor with the Academy than Oscar prognosticators and critics are giving it credit for. They’ve responded in the past to this type of material and David O. Russell is perfecting the strategy. I do not expect it to obtain many nominations, but I maintain that a Picture nod is still a possibility.

Oscar hopes: Picture, Actress, Original Screenplay

The Hateful Eight: Vintage Tarantino

The last major movie to open this weekend is Tarantino’s eighth movie, the almost-Revenant companion Western, The Hateful Eight. Shot in 70mm and constructed with an overture and intermission, Tarantino’s love poem to movies is, at the very least, admirable for that reason alone.

But the movie works on many other levels as well, even if the typical Tarantino ultra-violent scenes are not my cup of tea. Whereas the Revenant is somber and foggy in its color, Tarantino’s film is much more colorful and vibrant, set against the beautiful Rockies in Telluride. And where The Revenant is serious in tone and mood, The Hateful Eight is, successfully, much more a wink-wink kind of picture. The story is of a bounty hunter escorting a dangerous prisoner (the revelatory Jennifer Jason Leigh) to be hanged, and the difficulties he faces when he is stranded in the middle of a winter storm in a Western outpost.

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