Joy

First Hit:  Wonderful story about a woman who learned to understand her creative inventive power and used it to change her life and the world around her.

This is the story about Joy Mangano. Yes, dramatic license was taken in presenting this story, however the essence and path of the story is true.

Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) married the wrong guy Tony (Edgar Ramirez), who lives in her basement because he cannot afford to live anywhere else. Her mom Terry (Virginia Madsen), lives in her house and spends all her time watching soap operas from her bed.

Her Dad Rudy (Robert DeNiro), helps to pay the mortgage because when he’s not living with a girlfriend he’s living in her house as well. Then, like bookends, also living in her house are her two children who require her time and attention and her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd).

Mimi keeps pushing her to get back to the creative person she was as a child so that she can become the true successful matriarch of the family. Joy's life is filled with one problem after another. She addresses and deals with them in a robotic way so that she can take just one more step. Resignation is the sign she carries in her eyes and in her spirit.

Finally, the creative inventive person she was when she was young perks back to the surface when she cuts herself cleaning up wine and broken glass with a mop. This event pushes her to invent a mop which revolutionizes the mop and cleaning.

The rest of the film is about the difficulties of getting the product sold. She sells the head of QVC Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) that this mop can be a success on his network. He takes the chance, it fails, but her perseverance gets her another opportunity. The interaction between Lawrence and Cooper is magnetic. They work so well together.

Another one of my favorite scenes is preceded by her admitting defeat and then with all being lost, she digs into the paperwork and agreements and shows up in Texas (think showdown on main street) with someone who claims he owns a patent on her product. The dialogue in the hotel room – perfect.

This film is about perseverance, belief, and the ability to find one’s inner strength to explore what might be next.

Lawrence gives another top-notch performance. It will be considered for possible selection in the Oscar race. De Niro is strong as the flighty unfocused father. Isabella Rossellini’s performance as Trudy, De Niro’s latest girlfriend, was inspired. Madsen was funny and oddly interesting as the soap opera watching mom. Ladd was sweet as the solid motivating family matriarch grandmother. Ramirez was great as the ex-husband who supports his former wife’s plans. Cooper was fantastic. He fully embraced the role as guide, cheerleader and occasional heavy. Dascha Polanco was outstanding as Joy’s supportive friend Jackie. David O. Russell wrote and directed this team of actors with originality, focus, and clarity.

Overall:  I loved the inspiration that emanates from this film.

Concussion

First Hit:  Granted, the NFL did not know what was happening at first, but when they learned and refused to do something about it by letting their greed for money persevere, I wasn’t shocked.

Fact: Multiple hits on the head, like what happens on a football field, can cause CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), a neurodegenerative disease. This brain damage has directly led to the deaths of many football players and more will needlessly die because of this.

This film tells the story through the eyes of an immigrant who came from Nigeria because he believed that America was the greatest of all countries. Bennet Omalu M.D. (Will Smith) came to the US with more doctorate and master’s degrees than probably any two or three of the most educated people you may know.

Despite being brilliant, people tried to denounce his discovery of CTE because he wasn’t born in this country, was black, and didn’t watch football.

The script was very strong from the get go and when it has him explaining why human brains are more susceptible to this type of injury than a woodpecker or a bighorn sheep you know that he's been careful and pragmatic in his work.

At first he believed that he was helping the NFL when he shared his research with them, but all they saw was economic ruin if the story got out.

The film uses the story of Mike Webster (AKA “Iron Mike”) an NFL center who was considered one of the greatest centers of all time. His untimely death at age 50 from apparent suicide was questioned by Omalu because, nothing in his body said he should have this sort of ending.

What Omalu discovered through detailed unprecedented research was that repetitive head hitting caused CTE. The result gave a reason as to why Webster was hallucinating and not be able to take care of himself. He lost his home, family, and lived in a pickup truck for years before dying.

Supporting Dr. Omalu on this path was his boss Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks), former NFL physician Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) and Dr. Steven DeKosky. Together they wrote a paper for a scientific journal that when published scared the hell out of the NFL. The film also balances his fight to get the NFL to acknowledge his findings, with his meeting and falling in love with his wife, Prema Mutiso (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She was amazing in her support of his work.

The film effectively used, hard to watch, scenes of football players hitting each other helmet to helmet and their heads hitting the ground after being tackled. The pacing of the film is perfect and there isn’t a minute wasted on fluff.

Smith was sublime and perfect in this role. He embodied a man who only wanted the truth to be told and would do anything to have it be heard. Brooks was amazing as Omalu’s boss. One got the sense that he admired Omalu as a man and a fellow physician. He wanted to be there to support him because he knew Omalu’s brilliance would reveal the truth. Baldwin was very strong as the former NFL physician who knew that Omalu’s science was correct and was willing to go against his old bosses and friends for the truth to be unveiled. David Morse as Mike Webster was scary great. He held the audience and his fellow actors with the tension he created in this role. Mbatha-Raw was wonderful in her supportive role as Omalu's wife. She provided a grounded sense throughout the film. Peter Landesman wrote and directed this film. His interpretation of the story and use of the actors make this a film to consider at awards time.

Overall:  This film has a lot to say to anyone who lets their sons play football: Do you want to risk the possibility of brain damages?

The Big Short

First Hit:  This film amazingly and with clarity explains how trusted financial bankers and Wall Street traders used their greed and arrogance to create a mortgage system that collapsed and ruined the lives of 10’s of thousands of people.

The impact of the mortgage credit bubble bursting in the mid-2000s affected thousands upon thousands of people. Not since the 1929 crash had so many families lost their homes, their jobs, and ended up on the street. Why?

Because Wall Street bankers and others running hedge funds thought they were smarter than everyone else and deserved to make as much money as they could at the expense of other people. The sad part was that these guys either; never thought about how it might hurt others, or they didn’t care about anything or anybody else except themselves.

There is something amazingly depressing about our society that promotes ways for people to act in the way they did. To teach us about this complex situation, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay wrote a quirky and intelligent script based on true characters and fact while using various ways to tell the story.

They used odd vignettes with Selena Gomez and Margo Robbie playing themselves and had them share fun examples of how the scheme worked. Director McKay also had one character as a narrator allowing him to break the fourth plane and speak to the audience directly, then drop right back into his character. All this added to the quirkiness of this film.

In the story Christian Bale played the extremely intelligent Michael Burry who predicted the fall of the market. This highly focused numbers guy read and analyzed each loan in many of the packaged loan portfolio bundles and saw how their high rating belied the loans within them.

There was Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), a big bank trader who knew the banks were packing high risk and junk loans with good ones to hide their risk. He wanted to find a company that would allow him to bet against his own company. He also narrated from time to time. Mark Baum (Steve Carell) a trader who felt that there was a lack of integrity by most of the people in the world. He was always railing against society and how it rips people off. He and his team did their research by going to Florida and talked with the people who owned or rented the homes that were in these portfolios.

For example; when he learned that a female stripper owned 4 homes and a condo and didn’t make any down payments in purchasing them, he was convinced. Then there is Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittlock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) who accidentally picked up a prospectus while being turned down by Citi-Bank to trade on their floor. Reading the prospectus their interest was sparked and they dug deeper.

After seeing the numbers, they asked their friend and retired famed trader Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) what he thought. These four groups (and their people) ended up being right. They bet the market would fail, it did, and they made a ton of money. I didn't get the sense they felt good about it because they knew people were going to lose their homes, banks were going to fail, and that the federal government (read this as taxpayers) would bail out the the arrogant bankers and their companies. To add insult to injury, these bankers took their annual yearly bonuses, and the banking laws changed little.

Carell was manic in a good way. He embodied many people’s sense of outrage at how people take advantage of others and don’t care. His unfiltered way of interacting with people is what many want to be like. Gosling was smooth in transitioning from a character in the film and also the narrator. Bale was almost uncomfortably quirky in his amazing portrayal of a disconnected numbers genius. He sold me on his character’s solid belief that he knew what and when the bust would happen. It was amazing when he walked out of the office one last time and posted his company’s % gain. Wittlock and Magro were perfect as the small time fund managers, who were making great trades and wanting to play with the big banks. Their bright enthusiasm and commitment was spot on. Pitt was interesting in his role as a transformed trader that wanted to help his friends. Randolph and McKay wrote an outstanding script by making this complex issue understandable. McKay’s direction worked and made this into a top notch film.

Overall:  I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about how our financial system failed and was left with some fear that it may happen again if we don’t watch ourselves.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (3-D)

First Hit:  Nailed it. This film immediately took me back to May 25, 1977 when the story first began and I knew it was going to be an amazing ride - this film was no different.

I remember standing in line about 38 years ago to see “Star Wars” and wondering if it was going to be as good as the hype.

As the yellow storyline rolled across the screen fading into a vanishing point while being accompanied by the powerful John Williams score; I sat back and smiled and said to myself, “here we go” and the ride began. Yesterday at the 9:00 AM I saw the 3D presentation of film number 7.

As soon as the story-line started scrolling up the screen, accompanied by the John Williams score, I laughed out loud, smiled, and said to myself; “it’s back and I'm ready". There was no let down in this film. The new characters were perfectly cast, the re-introduction of the original characters amazingly handled, while the story was very interesting and moved the whole set of stories forward with suspense, tragedy, and excitement. The writing was top notch, the visual effects were reminiscent to the first film, yet updated with today’s technology and the characters grew in depth while adding to the legacy. 3-D used perfectly - not a distraction only an enhancement.

Harrison Ford returned as Han Solo. He was wonderfully introduced, exquisitely honored, and ceremoniously pathed. For his part, Ford was amazing. Carrie Fisher came back as General Leia (versus Princess Leia) the leader of the resistance against the First Order. Although less dynamic than Ford, her place and fulfilment of her part of the puzzle was required and perfectly executed. I was happy she was part of the film. Mark Hamill continued as a much older and wiser Luke Skywalker. Although his role was small, it begins a new cycle as well, wonderful. As for the major new players: Daisy Ridley as Rey was superb. She filled her role as an intelligent, physically capable, and believer of her destiny amazingly well. She exemplifies and is the new heroine for this series. John Boyega as Finn was auspiciously wonderful as a new male hero for the resistance. Lupita Nyong’o was fantastic as Maz Kanata the very old wise woman. Oscar Isaac was fun as Poe Dameron a renegade fighter pilot for the resistance. Domhnall Gleeson was perfectly arrogant and heartless as the General Hux, leader of the First Order. Lastly, Adam Driver as dark side leader Kylo Ren was very strong. Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams wrote an incredibly strong script. Definitely Oscar worthy. Abrams fulfilled everybody’s hope in delivering a very exciting film that kicks off a new era of Star Wars films. The next one will be tough to do – just as Lucas found out.

Overall:  Abrams, Kasdan, and the whole team turn out an amazing story – thank you.

Youth

First Hit:  A sometimes odd, yet compelling film that created a beautiful ending allowing the audience to hear and see the soul of Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine).

Ballinger is on vacation in the Alps with his best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel) and daughter Lena Ballinger (Rachel Weisz). He’s a retired orchestra conductor and seems tired and disenchanted. As these elder men watch the younger people, they see the difference of today’s youth and their own youth.

Their kids are struggling in their relationship, Mick is trying to write a new screenplay, Fred is being asked to conduct again for the Queen of England, and Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) is attempting to find his character for a new film by watching the people at the hotel.

There are odd acts each evening in the backyard of the hotel as entertainment and as a distraction. The conversations between everyone are abstractly shown sometimes with context other times without. As Fred begins to come to grips with his feelings towards how music was his true love, not his wife or daughter; he slowly is able to discuss his poor parenting and his lack of being a good husband with his daughter. In the end, the performance he leads is beyond beautiful – it is the expression of his love.

Caine was excellent in his quiet way. His way of showing his character growing through this story is fantastic. Keitel is great as a friend and coming to grips with his fading director and writing talents. Jan Fonda, as Keitel’s actress muse Brenda Morel, is fantastic. Her biting cynicism is amazing. Dano is amazing as an actor finding a way to play a part and then letting the part go because he cannot relate or honor the character. Weisz is wonderful as the daughter learning to love her dad. Paolo Sorrentino wrote and directed the film. His dialogue, at times, is sublime. Other times some of the scenes came off a bit disjointed with the film’s purpose.

Overall:  The ending was worth the intermediary flaws.