'Don't ever think that the world owes you anything, because it doesn't. The world doesn't owe you a thing.'

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2016)

Annie Mumolo and David O. Russell provided the story and David O. Russell wrote the screen play and directed this engrossing film about the determination of a little girls whose need to create things is squelched by life in general until she has a big break, invents a mop, makes it big, loses is all then climbs out of the hole of bankruptcy and depression and wins - supremely!
Jennifer Lawrence is splendid in the role of Joy but she is supported by some of the best written minor character roles in recent movies – her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd), her mother (Virginia Madsen), her errant father Rudy (Robert DeNiro) and his current (among many) affair with Trudy (Isabella Rosselini), her divorced but support husband Tony (Edgar Ramírez) who lives in the basement with Rudy, her best friend since childhood to present Jackie (Dascha Polanco), the man to whom she is referred to start her business Neil (Bradley Cooper), and the cast from the dopey soap opera that constantly plays on her mother's TV, etc.
The story blends the multifaceted cultural flaws we observe daily – dysfunctional families save for the matriarch grandmother who has wisdom, step-sibling greed, failed marriages, the effect on children living in the midst of constant squabbling, dreams that are trampled by insecurities and life changes, corporate greed and corruption, etc – but it also shows how stamina and determination and believing in one's self can ultimately allow a person with vision to rise above it all.
Great cast, good script, fine film – all underlining the realm of possibility of the American Dream.