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Tag: Jennifer Lawrence

“Joy”—To Behold

  Joy is based on the true story of a divorced Long Island entrepreneur, Joy Mangano (played by Jennifer Lawrence), who invented the Miracle Mop in 1989. In the process she overcomes significant personal and business obstacles. Mangano develops an immensely prosperous business empire, first with QVC and later with the Home Shopping Network (HSN). This is all before retail stores realized their distribution channel was going to be decimated—first by QVC and HSN, and later by Amazon. This film (written and directed by David O. Russell) reveals a deeply poignant story about a young intelligent...

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The Hunger Games Revisited: Part 2– “Catching Fire”

In what has to be the biggest blockbuster franchise since Twilight and Harry Potter, in this sequel to the first Hunger Games film (see my April 8, 2012 review–“The Hunger Games”–Our “Harry Potter”), the post-apocalyptic Panem is still a hell on earth.   Former victors are forced to participate in a Quarter Quell, marking the 75th anniversary of the Hunger Games. Survival through fake social relationships which the victors all know will end in death is still the tense spine of the narrative.  In “Catching Fire” the means to survival grows darker...

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“Silver Linings Playbook”–Behind Every Cloud

The best comedies go for truths, not laughs.  And, although “Silver Linings Playbook” is billed as a comedy, it is more a romance between two young adults with bipolar disorder whose families and friends have to deal with the turmoil that mental illness creates. David O. Russell, the director of this blockbuster multiple Academy Award winner, wrote the screenplay partly as an acknowledgement of his son’s bipolar disorder and as a message about this form of mental illness. Russell has delivered two sympathetic characters to raise  our awareness.  In this way, “Silver Linings...

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“The Hunger Games”–Our “Harry Potter”?

“The Hunger Games” is  part “Harry Potter” meets the “Truman Show” with a dash of “American Idol” and “Lord of the Flies.” The blockbuster trilogy by Suzanne Collins is set to be an equally sensational trilogy on the silver screen.  Like the Harry Potter series, Collins’ trilogy is targeted to a young adult audience. “The Hunger Games” is a dystopian tale about a country called Panem (from the Latin meaning–“bread and circuses”,  loosely referring to the government’s providing food and recreation...

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