Joy

Overview

Biopic of entrepreneur Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence), a divorced mother of two who risks her life's savings to produce and market her invention, the Miracle Mop. Joy faces opposition from her dysfunctional family, including her father Rudy (Robert De Niro), as they meddle in her burgeoning business. But when the head of the newly founded QVC network (Bradley Cooper) gives her a chance to sell her product on live TV, the Miracle Mop becomes a household name. The success of that invention later leads to a home-shopping empire and Joy's ascension to the matriarch of her extended family. David O. Russell directed this briskly paced comedy-drama, with Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, and Elisabeth R?hm co-starring.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/03/2016
UPC:	0024543109396
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:04:00

Special Features

Closed Caption; Joy, strength and perseverance; Gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jennifer Lawrence	Joy Mangano
Robert De Niro	Rudy Mangano,Cindy
Bradley Cooper	Neil
Edgar Ramírez	Tony
Diane Ladd	Mimi
Virginia Madsen	Terry
Isabella Rossellini	Trudy
Elisabeth Röhm	Peggy
Dascha Polanco	Jackie
Susan Lucci	Danica
Laura Wright	Clarinda
Maurice Benard	Ridge
Donna Mills	Priscilla
Jimmy Jean-Louis	Touissant
Ken Howard	Mop Executive
Ray DeLaPaz	Tony's Father
John Enos	Roderick
Marianne Leone	Sharon
Melissa Rivers	Joan Rivers
Isabella Crovetti-Cramp	Young Joy
Emily Nunez	Young Jackie
Madison Wolfe	Young Peggy
Aundrea Gadsby	Cristy 5 Years Old,Cristy 5 Years Old
Tomas Denson Elizondo	Tommy 3 Years Old,Tommy 3 Years Old
Alexander Cook	Bartholomew
Lori McCoy-Bell	Angry Airline Customer
Suzanne Frazier Wilkins	Airline Customer
Luisa Maria Badaracco	Susan
Jamell Washington	Airline Customer Service Clerk
Gary Tolchin	Airline Supervisor
Will Lebow	Monsignor
Johnnie McQuarley	Actor
Pedro Martinez Campos	College Party Band
Carlos Valencia	College Party Band
Alvaro Benavides	College Party Band
Edgar Pantoja Aleman	College Party Band
Shonda Schilling	College Party Goer,College Party Goer
Gary Zahakos	Divorce Mediator
Josef Boreland	Boat Captain
Pedro Sabino	Tino
Mateo Gómez	Latin Priest
Marcela Jaramillo	Actor
Jim Frangione	Charlie
Melissa McMeekin	Parking Lot Woman
Erica McDermott	Parking Lot Women
Carla Antonino	Parking Lot Women
Michele L. Egerton	Parking Lot Women
Marianne Bayard	Angela
Fiore Leo	Angela's Brother
Steve DeMarco	Angela's Brother
Collin Knight	Parking Lot Officer
Barbara Feeney	Receptionist
Damien Di Paola	Marv Brickman
Patsy Meck	Patsy
Jeremiah Kissel	Boardroom Reps
Dale Place	Boardroom Reps
Mitchell Rosenwald	Boardroom Reps
Thomas Matthews	Thomas
Bates Wilder	Todd
Paul Herman	Rifle Man
Christy Scott-Cashman	Sarina Kimball
Colleen Camp	Lori
Richard McElvain	Dr. Whitten
Mark Nemeskal	Funeral Priest
Patrick Pitu	Eerie Fabri-Pac Guy
Michael DeMello	Gregory
Ken Cheeseman	Gerhardt
Naheem Garcia	Police Officer
Ray Alongi	Police Officer
Johnny Lee Davenport	Ray Cagney
Sonny Mirabella	Front Desk Clerk
Bill Thorpe	Dallas Man
Sam Weisman	Lead Diller Attorney
Jeff Avigian	Diller Attorney
Barry Primus	Rudy's Attorney
Eliana Adise	Teen Cristy
Calidore Robinson	Teen Tommy
Jasmine White	Young Memphis Woman
William Galatis	Actor
James Gaiero	Actor
Victor Franko	Actor
Kimberly Evan	Actor
Alexandre Dornback	Actor
Ariana DeFusco	Actor
John Enos III	Roderick
Melissa Rosenberg	Joan Rivers
Isabella Crovetti	Young Joy
Matthew Russell	Roger from Wardrobe
Dan Bowen	Eerie Fabri-Pac Guy
Elisabeth Rohm	Actor
Edgar Ramirez	Actor
David Campbell	Composer
West Dylan Thordson	Composer
Danny Elfman	Composer

Technical Credits

David O. Russell

Annie Mumolo

David O. Russell	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Ken Mok	Producer
Megan Ellison	Producer
Jonathan Gordon	Producer
Ethan Smith	Executive Producer
Joy Mangano	Executive Producer
John Fox	Executive Producer
Matthew Budman	Executive Producer
George Parra	Executive Producer
Annie Mumolo	Executive Producer,Screenwriter
Mary McLaglen	Executive Producer
Davi Aquino	Sound Effects
Randy Babajtis	Sound Effects
David Betancourt	Sound Effects
Chris Diebold	Sound Effects
Lindsay Graham	Casting
Mary Vernieu	Casting
Jason King	Sound/Sound Designer
John Davis	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Let's ignore Accidental Love when discussing David O. Russell's recent career; after all, he chose to be credited as "Stephen Greene" on that disaster following monetary and artistic disputes with the studio. Without counting that one, Russell has made three of the finest films of the 2010s with The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle. Along the way, he's honed his directorial craft to a science by relying on terrific ensemble casts to tell compelling stories about American life. Joy seems like it should have been a natural progression in Russell's development, since it appeared to have all of the hallmarks of his greatness on the surface. Unfortunately, the film is a step back for the director, but perhaps that's only because he's set the bar so high for himself. Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) is a struggling single mother living in her cramped childhood home on Long Island, and is employed in a dead-end job with an airline. Her ex-husband (Edgar Ramirez) shares the basement of the home with her divorced father Rudy (Robert De Niro), while her mother (Virginia Madsen) is a first-floor shut-in glued to her soap operas on television. Joy's true kindred spirit is her grandmother Mimi (an excellent Diane Ladd), who still believes that her thick-skinned but crafty granddaughter is destined for great things. While cleaning up some spilled red wine, Joy badly cuts herself on broken glass while ringing out the mop by hand. Something clicks in her industrious brain and she begins chaotically drawing up prototype diagrams for a new cleaning device, using her young daughters' crayons and construction paper as the canvas. Joy petitions Rudy's newest girlfriend Trudy (Isabella Rossellini), a wealthy widow, for a loan to kick-start production on her invention: a self-wringing and machine-washable mop. After much consternation from her endlessly meddling family, Joy convinces Trudy to fork up the loan and produces a first run of her design. She struggles to get the business off the ground and constantly flirts with bankruptcy, but things begin to turn around when she gets a chance meeting with Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper), the head honcho at the newly formed QVC home-shopping network. Soon enough, business novice Joy must fight to keep control of her fledgling empire as shady maneuverings threaten to send her back to obscurity. Jennifer Lawrence is as talented as any actor working right now. She's Russell's muse, and her first starring role for the director is clearly the film's main attraction. Lawrence deftly navigates the rocky terrain of both Joy's life and the unbalanced script she's been saddled with, and her beady-eyed intensity and wide emotional range allow her to command every scene. She more than holds her own alongside veterans like De Niro, Madsen, and Rossellini. However, Russell never settles on a tone for the movie, possibly because he doesn't trust his source material. To be sure, it's a daunting task to make a compelling flick about a mop and its creator, but Russell's uncharacteristically unsteady hand fails to locate a sense of triumph in this narrative. There's a recurring bit about a fake TV soap opera that's wholly unnecessary. That cathartic-looking scene from the trailer of Joy firing a shotgun adds nothing to the story. The ideas behind Joy are inherently subversive; you can probably count on one hand the number of Hollywood films that follow a woman's entrepreneurial journey. And the scenes at QVC provide the movie's best moments -- Lawrence once again has superb on-camera chemistry with Bradley Cooper. Yet the black-comedy bits about Joy's dysfunctional family just don't feel complete. Frankly, a lot of this movie could have used some tightening and cleaning up. All of this might sound a bit overly critical since, in the end, Joy isn't a bad film. It's just hard not to see that the pieces of a better, more complete picture got left on the cutting-room floor. Maybe it's time for Russell to step outside of his comfort zone and try something new; regardless, that shouldn't stop anyone from appreciating Lawrence's talent in Joy.