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Director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) sticks with his good luck charm, casting Jennifer Lawrence as the title character in Joy. Russell has said that his film career started to disinterest him several years back, and that he became reinvigorated when he decided to start telling stories about very specific people in very specific places. If you watch The Fighter or Joy, you can see exactly what he means. And I have to say that he is wildly exceeding in his aims, because if you were to describe either The Figher or Joy to me, I don’t think I could possibly get very excited about either one of them. But if you watch either film, Russell gets you incredibly invested in the characters — their worlds, their struggles, and their dreams. There is nothing stock, rote or formulaic about the characters or their plights. They are real, and they make me care about them.

Joy is based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a struggling and beleaguered mother of three who was also taking care of her parents at the time she invented the world’s first self-wringing mop — the Miracle Mop, as it was later dubbed. It took years to develop and nearly bankrupted the entire family, but Mangano’s perseverence eventually led her to QVC, where she was able to demonstrate the mop on live television and build the cornerstone for what would eventualy become a home shopping empire that rescued not just Joy, but her entire extended family as well.

With Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell as your guides, you get to experience every tense moment and every devastating failure in Joy’s story, as well as the rare, hard-fought victories. Jennifer Lawrence is by far the greatest actor of her generation. I love her in every single thing I see her in, and this is one of her finest efforts thus far. She’s bolstered by a tremendous supporting cast, including Robert DeNiro as her needy father, Diane Ladd as her inspirational grandmother, Isabella Rosselini as her no-nonsense stepmother, Virginia Madsen as her tremulous mother, and Bradley Cooper as the business man who decided to take a chance on her invention.

Joy is one of those movies you have to see to believe. It doesn’t matter what it’s about. What matters is how incredibly effective it is in getting you to invest in another person’s hopes and dreams.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)