Joy

“When you’re hiding you’re safe, because people can’t see you. But funny thing about hiding: you’re even hidden from yourself.”

In case you were wondering, 2015’s ‘Joy’ starring Academy Award Winning Actress Jennifer Lawrence is a biographical film. It is in fact based on the life of ‘Joy Mangano’, an American inventor who became known for many inventions including the self-wringing ’Miracle Mop’ and is the president of ‘Ingenious Designs LLC and she appears frequently on the US television channel HSN (Home Shopping Network).

Written and directed by David O. Russell, it was nominated for 1 Oscar that year and received 18 other nominations and 4 wins. Two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro as well as Four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper also co-starred in this film. Listed under genres of Comedy and Drama, I found very little to laugh about in this film. Perhaps there were dark humorous moments, but I found it mostly dramatic and really very sad. The story showed moment after moment of adversity, failure, and falls and even though there was some retribution, the tone of the film was mostly morose.

With an estimated budget of $60 million USD it was beautifully shot and executed, however they barely scraped even at the box-office, grossing only $56 million USD back. Certainly worth the watch, as many ‘under-dogs’ will be able to relate to it; hopefully inspiring our audience to keep dusting themselves off and keep pushing forward towards their goals in life.