JOY [2015]

Director David O. Russell reunites with his usual cast members for the funny inspirational drama Joy.
It's a slightly fictional bio-pic on American entrepreneur Joy Mangano and the trouble she had with her world famous Miracle Mop, while still trying to juggle being a single mother who took care of her whole crazy family.
Based on Silver Linings Playbook & American Hustle, Russell and his co-stars Jennifer Lawrence  & Bradley Cooper seemed to be the perfect ingredients for success but Joy manages to fumble a bit with a distractingly uneven tone.  Still Lawrence is terrific at portraying characters who are much older than the actress actually is, with a confident performance that is worth giving the film at least a single viewing.  The script seems to start leading into all sorts of potentially interesting arcs for character interaction but never seems to find it's footing and ultimately feels like it needs a good mop-up itself.

3 soap operas out of 5

AMERICAN HUSTLE [2013]

David O. Russell reunites with his usual cast & crew members for the entertaining crime drama American Hustle.
The film gains most of it's unpredictable humor from the highly energetic cast-mates who all play off each other with comfort and ease.  It's a cat and mouse game where each character takes turns playing the cat only to be quickly knocked off their feet into the mouse hole again and that makes for some grin-worthy character studies.  With the actors going off the rails with their improvisation, the story is somewhat aimless at times, but Russell's always been one to care more about character rather than story and that works just fine.  It's a colorful, bold and sharply funny film with hilarious outgoing personality that's a breath of fresh air from all the other heavy-handed award contenders this year.

4 ice-fishing stories with Lye out of 5

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK [2012]

Director David O. Russell goes against his usual and makes a quiet & sensitive little drama about mental illness in Silver Linings Playbook. 

Normally I haven't enjoyed Bradley Cooper in...well...anything but here he excels with a wonderfully layered performance opposite Jennifer Lawrence who is equally as good.  Backed by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver, the actors all play off each other with exceptional believability.  It's a story that could have easily fallen into shitty rom-com territory but with the direction, characters and actors, the film rises far above that genre with the perfect amount of warmth and thoughtfulness.

4 midnight meat trains out of 5

THE FIGHTER [2010]

David O. Russell directs Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in their absolute best performances and roles to date in the boxing bio-pic The Fighter.

Based on the lives of rising and fallen boxer brothers, Micky Ward & Dicky Eklund, the film seamlessly blends boxing and character arcs to appease fans of stories and sports.  The Fighter never really gets too emotionally heavy, as most dramas in this genres would, but plays everything more naturally in doing so makes it even better.  With the help by some definitive performances from Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, as well, the film excels above it's predictability.  

3½ Sugar Ray rejections out of 5

Three Kings (1999)

This is going to make me unpopular, but that’s nothing new.
Clooney is the sole reason I attempted to watch Three Kings.
High contrast. Bad humour.
I wasted an hour of my shitty life before turning it off.

1 to stop the bleeding hearts from killing me out of 5