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
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
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