Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd, and Virginia Madsen
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Bio-comedy-drama written and directed by David O. Russell. Joy (2015) follows struggling single mom of three children, Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right after inventing the Miracle Mop. Allies become adversaries, and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces.
Our Favorite Quote:
'When you're hiding you're safe, because people can't see you. But funny thing about hiding, you're even hidden from yourself.' - Young Joy (Joy) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Joy: Christie, look at me. I want you to remember something, because a lot of times people get nice things and they start to think differently. We got here from hard work, patience and humility. So I want to tell you, don’t ever think that the world owes you anything, because it doesn’t. The world doesn’t owe you a thing.
Joy: I was valedictorian in high school. I got into a fancy college. I stayed here because my parents are getting divorced.
Joy: What are you doing here?
Danica: I’m returning him, I don’t want him anymore.
Joy: [to Rudy] I don’t have any place to put you. Tony’s living in the basement right now.
Rudy: Your ex-husband shouldn’t be living in your basement.
Joy: Well, Dad, speaking of a proper way to be divorced…
Joy: [as Rudy walks over to a room] Don’t go in there! Mom’s in there!
Terry: Look who’s back!
Rudy: I’m Captain Jack.
Terry: Captain Jack the Flying Jacka**.
Rudy: You know what you are? You’re like a gas leak. You’re solidly killing us all!
Terry: I am not a gas leak! You take that back, you a**hole of a monster man!
Rudy: You creature from the Black Lagoon.
Rudy: You know what you are, Carrie? You’re like a gas leak. We don’t see you, we don’t smell you, but you’re silently killing us all.
Joy: [to Rudy and her ex-husband Tony] I’m going to separate the room. I got to go to work. Please, don’t kill each other while I’m gone.
Joy: What happened to us? What happened to all the things that we used to dream about for our lives? I just feel like it’s getting further and further away.
Joy: In America everyday people make of what they will of themselves. I’m going to do something.
Tony Miranne: Maybe your dreams are on hold for now.
Joy: That’s a nice way of putting it.
Mimi: [to Joy] You don’t exactly have your whole life ahead of you, but you still have a good portion of it.
Rudy: You’re so beautiful. You could have married anybody. Married a doctor, a lawyer, a nice man, instead of this… I don’t even know what to call this guy.
Joy: Are you seriously talking about this right now?
Rudy: [showing them her drawing of the mop she wants to invent] I don’t get it.
Joy: This is the only idea that I have right now, and I think it has a chance to change all of our lives!
Christie: We’re doing an invention and it’s very serious.
Peggy: Joy has never run a business.
Joy: There’s nothing like it out there.
Rudy: It’s a big mistake.
Peggy: It’s a fantasy!
Neil Walker: In America I believe the ordinary meets the extraordinary every single day.
Joy: I have real ambitions and real ideas.
Rudy: It’s my fault. I gave her the confidence to think she was more than an unemployed housewife.
Joy: I don’t want to end up like my family. I have to do things myself, once and for all.
Joy: I mortgaged my house! I’m in two hundred thousand dollars of debt. I gave away everything!
Joy: As you grow up and come into this world that has all sorts of things in it: Money, family, crime, betrayal. When you realize the only thing you’re going to have is what you make.
Trudy: You have to fight for it as if it is your own children.
Joy: I will fight for it like it’s my own children.
Trudy: Good.
Trudy: You are in a room and there is a gun on the table. The only other person in the room is an adversary in commerce. Only one of you can prevail. Do you pick up the gun, Joy?
Joy: I pick up the gun.
Joy: Listen to me. Never speak on my behalf about my business again.
Tony: What if they don’t see you?
Joy: They’re going to see me no matter what.
Neil Walker: [as Joy is dolled up and given a poofy black early ’90s style dress] Wow. Beautiful. What do you think? How do you feel?
Joy: I’d like to change just one thing, do you mind?
Neil Walker: Okay, surprise me.
Joy: Small thing. I’ll surprise you.
Neil Walker: Okay, surprise me.
Neil Walker: [referring to Joy] I wonder what the small thing is that she changes.
Neil Walker: [as Joy comes out with her hair down, wearing a shirt and trousers] What? You undid the whole thing.
Joy: This is me.
Neil Walker: This is you? You’ve got the exact same outfit you had when you came in here.
Joy: I wear a blouse and I wear pants. That’s who I am. I want to go on as me.
Young Joy: [to her older self during a dream] When you’re hiding you’re safe, because people can’t see you. But funny thing about hiding, you’re even hidden from yourself.
Trailer: