Joy (2015)

“Don't ever think that the world owes you anything, because it doesn't. The world doesn't owe you a thing.”

            It is amazing how much money people can make when they invent something and it takes off and possibly even gets bought by a larger company. I keep crying hearing how much money some companies pay for certain apps. They pay millions and millions and the app’s creators are living a very nice life. Besides apps and technology there are many simple inventions that have been developed over hundreds of years especially in the 20^th century. Some of these simple inventions are taken advantage of today. Before the invention of the self-wringing mop mops would have been wrung out by hand. Mops are gross and could even be dangerous. In the movie Joy we get to see how the invention of the self-wringing came to be and how much it changed the life of the inventor.

            Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) is a divorced mother of two living in upstate New York. She can barely afford to pay the mortgage on her house, her mother just stays in her room watching soap operas all day, her grandmother Mi-Mi has been the only one who told Joy she could be anyone she wanted to be, her father has been married countless of times and comes back to her house after he latest wife divorces him, and her ex-husband lives in the basement.

            Her father, Rudy (Robert De Niro), almost right away begins seeing this wealthy woman Trudy (Isabella Rossellini). Rudy and Trudy take the whole family out on her late husband’s boat. Wine gets spilled and because Joy is walked all over she is the one left with cleaning up the spilled wine. She winds up cutting her hands on the broken wine glass as she is wringing out the mop. Joy soon gets the idea to invent a self-wringing mop. Rudy has a warehouse where he does his business from and Trudy has a lot of money so she asks them to help back her invention.

            Joy soon meet with Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) the head of the QVC channel. She gets Walker to put her invention on the show with her showing it how it works and not a washed up celebrity the channel has on hand. With Joy explaining and showing the product herself it starts to sell.

            Unfortunately, there is an issue. Before she began production Joy had Trudy’s lawyer look into any copyright issues with the product. It was found out that a Japanese man had invented something similar and created parts. Joy uses the man’s parts in her product which she gets through a company out in California. The company starts messing with her and charging her ridiculous amounts. Rudy and her step-sister Peggy blow up any deal that could have been made by paying the company. Joy finds out the manufacturer has been fraudulently charging her for the patent. She winds up going to the manufacturer out in Texas and gets his ass good and owns her product outright.

            Several years later Joy is a very successful business woman and also invests in other people’s inventions.

            Joy was a good movie. It was not that great, I found the story a bit boring. The cast was great. I always enjoy seeing Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence together in a movie they work so well together. I adore Isabella Rossellini and I had no idea she was in this movie before I started watching it and I got so excited when she came on screen. Joy is worth watching at least once because of the cast and also because it is a bit inspiring to never give up on what you believe in no matter what life throws at you.

 

American Hustle (2013)

“She was the Picasso of passive-aggressive karate.”

            As soon as I saw the cast of American Hustle I had to see it. I did not even care if the plot was awful or if the reviews were terrible I just had to see it. I finally got to see American Hustle and it was very good and the cast was perfection.

            Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) goes to New York City from New Mexico. Through a Goodfellas- like voice over (that switches back and forth between Sydney and Irving)- she says she just wanted to be anyone but who she was and that changes when she meets Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale). The two meet at a party in Long Island one weekend and bond over Duke Ellington. Irving immediately takes to Sydney he really loves her. Sydney comes to love Irving but unfortunately for her Irving is married to a younger woman named Roslyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and has adopted her son.

            Irving eventually tells Sydney what he really does. He does own a few dry cleaning stores and some other legitimate businesses but what he really does is scam people by saying he can give them loans if they pay him five thousand dollars up front. Sydney is upset with him at first but then decides to join his scam. She creates the role of Lady Edith Greensley who has banking connections in England. The loans are never guaranteed so if the people are approved for their loans there is not a huge problem.

            One day trouble does come along in the form of Richie Dimaso (Bradley Cooper) an FBI agent. He and the FBI catch Sydney and Irving but only arrest Sydney since she took the money. Sydney is kept in jail for three days. Richie likes her and wants to help her. When Irving is allowed to see Sydney, Richie tells them in order to get off the hook they have to help catch four people in other scams. Richie wants to go after Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) a New Jersey mayor who wants to rebuild Atlantic City and does not mind getting his hands dirty for the sake of making his state better.

            After a while the whole deal goes south once Richie starts aiming for bigger fish in his quest to become a sort of celebrity.

            The cast was brilliant in all sense of the word. I have to admit I am not really a fan of either Christian Bale or Jeremy Renner and that goes for this movie as well but they were not as bad as they usually are for me. Bale pulled off being an overweight con artist so well. I will give the man credit he really does go all out for a role and always does well. I am just not thrilled with him for some reason he does not do anything for me. Renner was totally not believable as an Italian mayor who grew up in New Jersey. Renner to be is Hawkeye or whoever he was in the Bourne Supremacy where he does not have to do too much talking. Despite not being the best choice for the role Renner oddly fit with the rest of the actors.

            This movie truly belongs to Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, and Bradley Cooper. Seriously Jennifer Lawrence can do absolutely no wrong. The woman is so damn amazing. She is not even in the movie that much but she steals the whole damn thing! I was laughing so hard with all her scenes. The best is when she aggressively danced around the house and singing “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney. Lawrence is just awesome. You can see her immense talent because she just falls right into the characters. She convincingly becomes this crazy Long Island housewife. There is a scene between Lawrence and Amy Adams that just blew my mind because Lawrence just kicked its ass. In a review from the Montreal Gazette they perfectly sum up Jennifer Lawrence in this movie:

            “This should have been Adams’s ride, but Jennifer Lawrence, playing Rosenfeld’s wife, carjacks the whole movie in the last act with just a handful of scenes and takes us on a dizzying joyride to the finale.”

            And you know what it should have been Amy Adams’ movie and had Jennifer Lawrence not been casted I am sure it would have been. This is another woman with such tremendous talent. Every year this poor woman seems to be nominated for an Academy Award and she never wins when she totally deserves to. Adams has been in better movies than this and should have won for those but I have a feeling she could win something for her role here. There is a story how Katharine Hepburn told Audrey Hepburn that she would win for an inferior role after Audrey lost with Eliza Doolittle (she would eventually win for Wait Until Dark which was not that great). I have a feeling this happen with Adams with this or some time down the road (I still think she should have won for Doubt she was beyond amazing in that). What I like about Adams is that she looks like an innocent woman like I could never imagine her cursing or being half naked or fully naked and she pretty much does both in American Hustle and has done before in other movies. Maybe that is why I find Adams so great because I am always surprised by what she does in movies. Adams also gets lost in her role she becomes the characters and blows them away.

            Bradley Cooper just gets better and better with every movie he makes. He will forever be Will Tippin from Alias to me (I say this all the time and will forever do most likely with any of his movies I see). He was a good actor then (thirteen years ago!! Holy shit!) and he got better. Cooper, besides Alias, always seems to play assholes. He was an asshole here too… but so was everyone else. I hope Cooper can pull off a nomination for some award for his performance in this movie he deserves it.

            Robert De Niro, Jack Huston, and Shea Whigham make appearances. De Niro plays, what else, a mobster, looking for a piece of reconstructing Atlantic City. Jack Huston plays one of De Niro’s thugs. Shea Whigham plays some other kind of con artist as well. They all have small parts. I mention Huston and Whigham because they are/were both on Boardwalk Empire, which takes place in Atlantic City. Houston and Lawrence have a few scenes together and I have to say I would like to see them together in another movie some time.

            The costumes I liked more for the women. The 1970s were just a bad time for fashion. The clothes were so damn ugly especially for the men. Lawrence and Adams looked stunning in all the costumes they had to wear. Their costumes were all low cut and simple compared to the actual clothes from the time period. Adams looked gorgeous in all her outfits I could not even handle it. Lawrence looked like she was going to fall out of all of hers but she looked fabulous. The suits the men wore were terrible. Holy garbage they were sickening.

American Hustle was very good. I honestly did not know what to expect and I am happy I was not let down in any way. The cast was so good together, thank God otherwise I would have been let down. What I really liked about the movie was none of the characters are likeable and they are not right from the beginning. They are human they are idiots and they make mistakes. Maybe Carmine Polito is the only character you can sympathize with and that is all. David O. Russell wrote and directed the film. He said he cares more for the characters than he does plots and I am glad someone likes character more than plot. You see the care he put into writing these character and they are all enthralling and entertaining. I highly suggest going to see American Hustle for its cast, story, and all around entertainment.

The Family (2013)

I am mostly Italian (my mom is one hundred percent and my dad I have no clue how much although our last name is Italian) and being Italian means I have had to sit through all the great gangster movies. I have seen The Godfather and before that I kept hearing “what is wrong with you you’re Italian and you’ve never seen The Godfather?!” I watched the first and second Godfather and thought they were excellent (I shall be skipping the third). I have seen Goodfellas and thought it was genius. Godfather II and Goodfellas have Robert De Niro in common and so does the latest gangster movie The Family. Also like Goodfellas Martin Scorsese is attached to The Family but only as a producer.  

            Giovanni Manzoni (De Niro) and his family are in witness protection in France. They were living in the beautiful Riviera until he did something he should not have done and his handler in the witness protection had to have the family move. They move to the middle of nowhere in Normandy where there is absolutely nothing to do. The handler, Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) tells them to blend in and keep out of trouble. He has the house watched by two FBI agents in a place across the street.

            Of course the first day in town everyone gets into trouble. Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), the wife, gets mad at a grocery store clerk and blows the back room up. Belle (Dianna Agron), the daughter, is taken to a lake by some French boys where one of them hits on her and she beats the every living crap out of him with a tennis racket. Warren, the son, manages to be a smart ass and gets his ass kicked but already plans out his revenge against the idiot guys that beat him up. Giovanni, or Fred as Robert has him called, beats up the plumber who was going to charge him for doing nothing.

            Besides all the beat downs, things seem to be going well for the newly named Blake family. Giovanni even plans on writing his memoirs on an old typewriter he found. That is until the mob boss that Giovanni squealed on and sent to prison manages to find out where he is hiding in France and sends his guys after him. Now the whole family has to come together to take down the hit men.

            The cast was excellent. Robert Di Nero is horribly typcasted as a former mob man but come on he made his name playing Vito Corleone who is without a doubt one of the most famous movie characters ever so of course he will forever play mobsters. Michelle Pfeiffer was good but her performance and character seemed a little awkward. I liked seeing her with Di Nero and the “kids” she was good with them. Now I must admit I went to see this movie for Dianna Agron. Let me set the record straight that I despise Glee. I watched two episodes with my friend and could not stand it unless the cast was singing (I like their singing so much I have a Glee playlist on my iPod I just hate the show and all the character drama). The episodes that I saw I fell in love with Dianna Agron I thought she was fantastic. Agron was so good. I went nuts in the two scenes where she beats up people she was awesome! Belle was a typical teenage girl character besides beating the crap out of a guy who touched her and a girl who stole her pencil case. She falls in love with a guy and is devastated when he leaves for Paris. I find it funny that Agron is a year older than me at twenty-seven years old and she is forever playing high school students. I hope to see Agron in more movies she has so much potential to become a popular leading lady. John D’Leo who plays Warren was so damn good. You could believe this kid was as smart as he was.  Much love and admiration goes to D’Leo for being a fellow New Jerseyian. My favorite parts of the film were the ones where Belle and Warren talk to each other. You can tell they know they are the only ones they can depend on. The best part was when Warren tells Belle how their father uses the F-bomb to express every kind of emotion be it bad or good. Tommy Lee Jones is just a great actor. Him and Di Nero together were hysterical. It was weird seeing these two giants of acting together but they completely worked. 

            The Family can be seen as a typical mob movie yet it is different from what has been done and what has been released the past few months. Of course it will not do anything incredible at the box office mostly because it is different and because it is another mob movie with Robert Di Nero. If you have seen Scorsese’s other films you will know that there is always a family element in them and it usually is large part of the story. The Manzonis are a typical Italian family from Brooklyn. They are all very close and no matter what happens they are always there for each other.  The story moves along slowly and the climax comes and goes very quickly. I did not have any expectations for the story so I was not let down in any way. As I mentioned I went to see this more for Dianna Agron and she was great. The Family in no way stands out as one of the greatest gangster films ever made but it is different and very enjoyable. I think I will be getting this when it comes out on Blu Ray. 

The Deer Hunter (1978)

“You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. A deer's gotta be taken with one shot.”

            The subject of war is loaded. Think of all the stories of war that have been told throughout history. Think of all the stories of World War II alone that have been told since it was still happening. So many men and women sacrificing their lives for their countries and their freedom. So many families and towns sacrificing their sons in the name of freedom. One war it seems not too many speak of the Vietnam War. I say “it seems” because I remember barely learning about in school and most likely because it was never covered in my academic career I do not understand why America even had to enter the conflict in the first place. What I have taken most from watching some programs about Vietnam or other movies about it is that the generation of men who fought were worse off when they came home then those who fought in World War II or Korea. The young men and women at this time were more vocal about politics than at any other time in America. They were vocal about their opposition. That is what I know most about the Vietnam War, all the opposition and the horror of what the men faced fighting it.

            When I chose to watch The Deer Hunter I had not read anything about the plot until I looked it up as the movie was starting. Had I known the plot I most likely would not have watched it but I hear about it a lot amongst the film community I follow online and from some of my film major friends.

            Three friends Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steve have grown up together in a small coal mining town. All three have signed up to fight in Vietnam. Steve gets married the day before they are about to leave. His wedding also acts as their going away party. They all have something to lose. They do not discuss leaving even with their other friends.

            In Vietnam Steve, Nick, and Michael are captured and tortured by the Viet Cong. Their preferred method of torture is making each of the captured men play Russian Roulette. Steve has a break down waiting for when he will be called hearing the click of the guns over and over. Michael manages to kill their captors and get away with Steve and Nick. Unfortunately all three get separated.

            Nick is placed in an army hospital. He has a difficult time processing questions a doctor asks him. He has a very lost look in his eyes. Michael has been sent home. The night he gets home his friends and family are waiting for him but he tells a cab driver to keep driving and he spends the night in a motel he cannot face anyone. Steve has returned home but his wife will not tell anyone where he is. Michael eventually finds out that Steve is in a local hospital. He is missing both legs. Steve shows his friend that he has been receiving a lot of money from someone. Michael figures out that it must be Nick. He and the whole time believe that Nick has been missing. Michael goes back to Vietnam to find Nick. He tracks Nick down to a place where men play Russian Roulette and other men bet on who will die. Nick looks terribly thin, withdrawn, and angry at the world. He make Michael play him in the deadly game. Unfortunately, Nick’s life ends that night in the game.

            The movie was three hours long! I in all honesty have ADHD and my attention started to drift so between the length and my horrible attention what I have written is what I was able to get out of it.

            I watched The Deer Hunter mostly for the cast. As soon as I saw Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken on the DVD I had to check it out. Meryl Streep plays Nick’s girlfriend. She was, as always, excellent even though her part was small. Robert De Niro’s character does not say much. I liked Michael and how little he had to say. To me Michael was the audience’s eyes into the small town, the people in the small town, and to one story of the Vietnam War. In De Niro you can see Michael’s mind working, thinking about what is going on around him. Of the movies I have seen De Niro in The Deer Hunter is my favorite. Christopher Walken is an actor I am usually on the fence about. He really did not have too much to do in the movie either but his character at the end really moves you. Walken did a great job with Nick after he was rescued and did not return home. But, before that there is really nothing interesting about Walken or his character. It was cool watching these three great actors in an early role especially De Niro and Streep who went on to make incredible movies and became such acting giants.

            The Deer Hunter was not a bad movie. For its length it went along at a nice pace. The only scene that dragged to me was the wedding scene. That could have been a bit shorter. I felt terrible seeing these three men so torn up after they went through war and being captured. I always feel terrible seeing men and women come home from war broken physically and mentally. The movie was excellently filmed and acted. Of most of the war movies I have seen this one has felt the most realistic and most heartbreaking. It was not so much a story of men fighting in a war it was what the war did to them before and after they fought. We only get maybe forty-five minutes to an hour of Michael, Steve, and Nick in Vietnam. That was another aspect of the movie I liked that the war scene was not long. I do not have any plans on sitting through The Deer Hunter again in the near future but I would definitely recommend seeing it if you are a movie fan or not.