One thing I do like about Russell's films though, is how many great performances he can get out of his stellar cast.
The story-lines may be as random as you can get, but the performances manages to make Russell's features engaging viewing and his recent success of being part of the last few awards seasons shows. American Hustle is a great example. It is a performance driven drama with a story that is forgettable. But the amazing efforts by Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence make it a great viewing experience. My favorite of Russell's works is Silver Linings Playbook. I really enjoyed the characters, the story and got hooked for the most part.
His latest feature Joy, is no exception to Russell's style of film-making.
It has that perfect amount of drama, quirky comedy, and this film is this year's American Dream story. Based on the true story of Joy Mangano, this under-dog tale is well written and gives us a great insight into how this lady became a person that anyone can get inspiration from.
Seeing Joy reminded me of those heroine features that you saw a lot of in the 1940's, featuring classic female actors such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and even my favorite Katherine Hepburn.
Leading the way portraying this talented female character is Jennifer Lawrence who has become the most successful and popular female actor in recent years.
With sexism in the film industry still a much talked about topic, I am glad Lawrence is making the most of her iconic status to heavily talk about this topic. Also, I like the choice in films as she does not always go for the mainstream. She likes doing her own thing, and if that makes a lot of her fans watch more independent films, then I hope she is a regular A-lister for the next couple of decades.
As for her performance, Lawrence is as great as anyone would expect her to be. She is obviously the stand-out in this and holds the film together. It's believable, strong, powerful and it maintains her high-quality partnership with Russell.
Other actors that have become regular within this particular directors features is Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.
De Niro gives us that pleasant comedic relief just like he did in Silver Linings Playbook, and Cooper makes great use of the short screen-time he is given. His character begins as a heart-warming one, then becomes a cruel one.
The rest of the supporting cast on a whole were good, but also felt over-the-top and unrealistic at times. But thankfully, they fitted in well for the majority of the feature.
The only negative is that I am still appreciating it rather than loving it as much as I did with Silver Linings Playbook. However, I did enjoy this more than American Hustle.
I still get that feeling with Russell's films, because by the end of it you still do question yourself by saying 'what was that movie actually about?' It still manages to scatter you from the main story. But like I said, the performances still manages to find a meaning to the story for you to cling on to.
In the end, I feel that Russell can find or make up any random story and still gives us a great film, because of the performances. Lawrence continues to add more quality to her filmography and the supporting work of Cooper and DeNiro helps that. Her strong lead does quite literally make this a joy to watch and feels nothing like 'oscar-bait' at all. This deserves to part of the awards season.
Rating: 8/10
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