Monday, December 14, 2015

Joy - A Movie Trailer Pondering

I used to read about all the new movies coming out, so that by the time trailers started rolling around (well, mostly, there's alway that one that's like coming to you in about four more seasons) they were additive information.  But with peak TV and books keeping me so well occupied, I have become less vigilant one the movie front. I still know what's out, but I have less prior knowledge.  And with "Joy" this has become an interesting experiment.  I have seen a trailer in the theatres, I have seen multiple versions on TV, and I could not tell you what it's about.  I mean, it's clearly about a woman, who I assume is named Joy, and she apparently does a thing that seems to make both her and the people around her very happy.  And...that's all I got.  In one version she says something about her business, and in another someone says she's never run a business, so I'm guessing she runs a business?  But it strikes me as a very interesting way to try to draw me to this movie.  Now perhaps, with the amazing cast and award winning director, they are assuming that's mostly what I need to know and all other info is superfluous.  And you could certainly argue that this is an improvement over movie trailers that appear to run through the whole plot.  But given that this movie is true story, the vagueness are a little strange. We could argue that everyone knows who Joy is, but my completely informal sampling of my friends does not indicate that to be so.  And certainly, there are some movies that follow a template of sorts.  Sports movies, and new business movies tend to have a scrappy person no one thought could do it, go off, fail a bit, and then do it. So maybe this is all I need.  But it does make me wonder if they are intentionally obscuring something.

Note: I did see a TV interview with the cast, where the reporter mentioned that the movie was about Joy Mangano, who they referred to as a home shopping mogul. The cast itself talked more about process, although certainly they may have edited out parts where they discussed the movie's subject.