FAMILY Movie Reviews
what could be imagined as a mundane concept. The film adds elements that don’t quite drop; a narration from Joy’s grandmother begins the film but is hushed away and forgotten, then returned to at the end more of a disruption. Jennifer Lawrence’s performance starts in a voice and attitude we’ve seen from her before, but
Here’s the latest on the winter movies you may have missed, just in time for the Academy Award season. by Tyler Kindred
Joy Loosely based on Joy Mangano, the in-
ventor of the Miracle Mop - amidst hun- dreds of other household item patents - Joy plays in the kind of domestic angst as David O. Russell’s previous hit, Silver Linings Playbook, and with a nearly identical cast. Joy, played by Jennifer Lawrence, strug-
gles as a single mother, when a seemingly spontaneous idea for a self-wringing mop becomes an infatuation. Once catching the attention of QVC executive, Neil Walker (played by Bradley Cooper), she wrestles against the male-dominated infrastructure of manufacturing, patent laws and televised home shopping. After an era of diverse material, from
the war film, Three Kings in 1999, to the screwy I Heart Huckabee’s in 2004, David O. Russell now finds a niche in lacing the
seemingly mundane with the sublime. Iconic scenes like Jennifer Lawrence marching down a Dallas street with chopped hair after a standoff; or firing a shotgun at a makeshift shooting range; and the spinning carousels of a home shopping network TV set; add a magically hypnotic atmosphere to
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Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens broke domestic U.S. box-office records previously
held by James Cameron’s Avatar, and is likely to be the second most financially successful film in history. Directed by J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III, Star Trek: Into Darkness), this would be the first of the Star Wars films not to be directed by George Lucas. The film plays like the classic space age Western, with a plotline reminiscent of the original,
Star Wars Episode 4 film. Perhaps in an effort to identify with the ‘70s versions rather than the Episodes 1-3 of the early 2000s that were not well received, Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens borrows characters and plotlines more from the ‘70s installments. Returning with most of the original cast featuring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, J.J. Abrams handiwork blends seamlessly into the classic ruggedness of the franchise. His iconic shaky camera work and accentuated lens flares mesh into the original feel of pilot POV shots, and old-fashioned transitional wipes. The new cast features Adam Driver, as well as Oscar Isaac and John Boyega. The film ends
ready for the sequel, set to be directed by San Clemente’s own, Rian Johnson (remember Brick, set at San Clemente High School in 2005?); leaving the new, female hero Daisy Ridley, left to embark on her own Jedi quest.
The Good
towards the end of the film retires into a quiet power. Her confrontations are resolved by an un- shakeable confidence, and her trademark sass evolves to a calm gravity. The film grows from what could have been a biopic, to a larger, American rags-to-riches myth.
Concealing the Mangano surname for the entirety of the movie, Russell adapts aspects of the Joy Mangano story to create something that strikes a chord with the current climate of venture capital, and overnight-successful startups. David O. Russel’s working relationship with Lawrence crescendo’s into something airy and weightless, and Joy proves an ability to make even the everyday, captivating.
Dinosaur After a hiatus from any released films
in 2014, Pixar releases two films this year, Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, after The Good Dinosaur was met with tech- nical hold-ups causing its release to be pushed back. First time director, Peter Sohn, directs a forever game-changing vi- sual effects film that will likely have rip- ples in the making of animated films for years to come. In an effort to replicate the vastness
of the American continent of old, thou- sands of square kilometers were mapped from government satellite geometry, cre- ated a digital set that could replicate enor- mous background distances. The imagery pushes beyond animated realism, to a kind of hyperrealism. For The Good Di-
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