Joy
Fox 2000 Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
25
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 7, 2015
Since Joy is a David O. Russell film, the presence of a) Lawrence and b) bizarre, fizz-popping explosions of catharsis are to be expected. But the ringmaster of The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle seems to have mellowed a little, which means fewer outright belly laughs, but a more layered and involving emotional landscape. Read full review
80
CineVueBen NicholsonJan 6, 2016
It's a banana flambé with extra rum that brazenly throws together folksy storytelling, arch soap opera melodrama and a typically eccentric cast into a golden Hollywood crack at the American Dream. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamJan 4, 2016
Not without glitches but an energetic study of one woman’s refusal to settle for anything less than her share of the American Dream. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeDec 7, 2015
Lawrence is gritty, real and totally genuine. And, after ‘Brooklyn’ and ‘Carol’, here’s another film that passes the Bechdel Test for proper female characters with flying colours. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 2, 2016
The story is quirky and offbeat but the dialogue and acting set Joy up as an engaging late-year repast. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyDec 24, 2015
Joy doesn’t work entirely, and the structure set up so clearly in the opening sequence is dropped early on for no apparent reason, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t get carried away at the story of a mop sweeping the nation. It’s a lunatic “Mildred Pierce," without the murder. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 23, 2015
Joy's entry into the world of entrepreneurship has the crazy trajectory of a rocket gone haywire, and Russell's movie is kind of haywire, too. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickDec 22, 2015
Mostly it’s up to Lawrence to wring all the drama and pathos she can out of a battle over patent rights that pushes Joy to the brink of bankruptcy. No surprise that her mettle cleans up all the messiness in Joy. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 15, 2015
It’s not in the same league as “Playbook” or “Hustle,” but thanks to some memorable set pieces and the best performance by Jennifer Lawrence since her breakout role in “Winter’s Bone,” the sometimes-bumpy journey is worth your investment. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezDec 7, 2015
Playing like a slightly more reflective B-side to the director's greatest hits, his style in this film isn’t for the more cerebral audiences. But for the viewer who relates to family dysfunction, its maddening contradictions and its mercurial tenor, Joy can be painfully funny, engaging and full of relatable heartache. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 25, 2015
The movie, in all its mess and glory, belongs almost entirely to Ms. Lawrence. She is the kind of movie star who turns everyone else into a character actor. This is not a complaint but an acknowledgment of both her charisma and her generosity. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 7, 2015
That the film itself is nearly as chaotic as the clan it examines can either be regarded as an admirable artistic correlative or a crippling defect, but the splendidly dextrous cast ensures that this goofy success story, which could just easily be titled American Hustle 2, keeps firing on all cylinders in the manner of the writer-director's previous few outings. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 26, 2015
An inspirational, and mostly entertaining, saga, Joy is a Horatio Alger story for the 21st century — but who reads those anymore? Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 24, 2015
Lawrence is terrific at playing tough, as she also demonstrated in her previous outings with Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook” and, especially, “American Hustle." But maybe it’s time for her to take a rest from him for a while. There’s a lot more to this actress than bold and brassy. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisDec 23, 2015
At its best, Joy celebrates the passage of a demoralized woman who finds the steel in her spine. At its worst, it panders in the name of female empowerment, occasionally delivering moments of pseudo-inspiration that ring so falsely it’s difficult to hear anything else. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnDec 7, 2015
A sunny ode to capitalism, the movie is a coy advertisement of its own. In that context, it's a whole lot better than one might expect, and loaded with talent unabashedly hawking their wares. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 25, 2015
While the perpetually charming Lawrence isn’t the worst habit a filmmaker can develop, she’s valiantly miscast here in a story that never quite hits its mark. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 24, 2015
The movie’s a shambles, alternatingly agreeable and aggravating, held together by our interest in its heroine and by Lawrence’s tremendously sympathetic performance. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleDec 23, 2015
What the film truly reveals is something else entirely: how Jennifer Lawrence can elevate any material, any time, even middle-of-the-pack fare like this. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 22, 2015
The 25-year-old supernova (Lawrence) again proves she can do anything, moving from comic to tragic without missing a beat. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyDec 7, 2015
David O. Russell proposes that there may be no real barrier between the caustic worldview he wears and the sense of childlike wonder he sells. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 24, 2015
The script feels not half-finished, but maybe three-quarters. Lawrence does what she can to make up the missing 25 percent, but even she can’t perform miracles. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensDec 22, 2015
Joy the movie never cohered, for me, into a story with forward motion. The minute the film begins to find its footing in one tonal register, it switches to another. Read full review
60
EmpirePhil de SemlyenDec 11, 2015
Another dazzling Jennifer Lawrence performance anchors a blue-collar parable that boasts some inspired moments but never quite gels. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 11, 2015
I don’t think Russell has ever directed a scene as phony as the one in Joy’s office where she shows her abiding beneficence to a sweet young African-American couple. Equilibrium makes Russell a dull boy. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 7, 2015
David O Russell’s Joy is an intriguing but weirdly subdued and stylised film. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 7, 2015
The improvisational flair, unpredictable tonal shifts and overt emotional lurches that highlighted American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook are here less consistently inspired and affecting, resulting in a heartfelt fairy tale that only soars in spurts. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 24, 2015
Endings have never been Russell's strong suit. This time the beginning also eluded him, and the middle fell into his lap. Joy leaves a feeling of panicked disappointment, as if phone lines are open and nobody's calling. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 16, 2015
Rough even by Russell’s standards, this grab bag of dropped plot points, visual metaphors, and theatrical cues looks like the underdrawing of a comic drama, only half covered in bright impasto strokes. Read full review
58
ConsequenceBlake GobleDec 14, 2015
Here’s a film with all the right ingredients and a few too many wrong moves, yet one that’s admirable for trying as hard as it does. Read full review
58
HitfixDrew McWeenyDec 8, 2015
While [Lawrence] does robust, heartfelt work in the lead in his new film Joy, this is the most miscast she's been in a while, and it's such a strangely imagined film in the first place that it never really gets its bearings. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 2, 2016
From a narrative and cinematic point of view, the problem with Joy is simple. Russell is almost totally uninterested in the story of how Joy Mangano explored a bizarre and unknown new business model and became its first self-made tycoon, and as a result we aren’t interested either. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 2, 2016
The 25-year-old Lawrence is too young – Mangano was 35 when the mop took off – but compelling to watch. Yet in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Cooper, De Niro and Russell all supported her with fine work; here they lie back and make the movie a one-ring circus where she has to be acrobat, bareback rider and clown. That’s too much to ask. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 24, 2015
Despite some quite engaging sections, "Joy" is, unlike previous Russell films, dragged down more than it is inspired by its chaotic ambience, a film whose variations in tone can't be overcome. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 24, 2015
Even Lawrence, in the end, is a letdown. As entertaining and committed as she is — and she’s easily the best thing about Joy — the actress ultimately can’t sell a souffle that’s half baked. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 23, 2015
Joy never completely loses its way. But it almost does, and it never quite arrives. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 22, 2015
There’s a Miracle Mop at the heart of Joy, though the movie is such a mess that even it would have a hard time cleaning up. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonDec 22, 2015
Russell enthusiasts — and I consider myself one — often applaud the director's abiding interest in the messiness of his characters' lives, most vividly on display in American Hustle, a movie animated by flamboyant dissemblers and depressives. But the disorder found in Joy is a reflection not of any quicksilver dynamics among the actors but of the odd tonal shifts in the film itself. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerDec 15, 2015
Joy has none of the energy or precision of any of Russell’s recent efforts. Not even Joy Mangano could invent a mop good enough to clean up this mess. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 14, 2015
Russell sets out to frustrate, and he does. And Joy never rises above that, an aggravating, un-fulfilling and empty night at the cinema with great actors trapped in an overdue flop from people we were just starting to figure were flop-proof. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 10, 2015
Lawrence is very good in the role, as far as the role goes. But the script never jells; the comedy feels forced and mechanically boisterous, particularly in the crucial early passages. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangDec 7, 2015
Despite another solid performance from Jennifer Lawrence, anchoring Russell’s sincerely felt tribute to the power of a woman’s resolve in a man’s world, it’s hard not to wish Joy were better — that its various winsome parts added up to more than a flyweight product that still feels stuck in the development stage. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 7, 2015
This is a rare misstep for Russell, who in the past has sold us on all kinds of stories, whether they’re as indescribable as “I Heart Huckabee’s” or as traditional as “The Fighter.” Unlike his indefatigable heroine, however, Russell just can’t seem to close the deal on Joy. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattDec 9, 2015
If only Russell trusted Mangano’s true story. Instead, he’s turned her life into a over-staged mess of awkward exposition, contrived dialogue, and characters so willfully unreal they feel acrylic. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 23, 2015
Joy is at its annoying worst when it’s clamoring to be antic, and at its brilliantly funny best when Joy and her adversaries — including one played by Bradley Cooper — are deadly serious about business as mortal combat. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsGersh KuntzmanDec 23, 2015
Joy is joyless. Read full review
35
The VergeTasha RobinsonDec 10, 2015
Joy has neither comedy nor nuance going for it. Every character feels like a half-sketched first draft, awaiting development that never comes. Read full review
12
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorDec 25, 2015
If his direction is erratic, the script he wrote with Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) has gaps you could drive a truck through and dialogue filled with painfully obvious exposition of plot, motive and theme. Read full review
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