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I saw this on Thanksgiving with the family with zero expectations or knowledge of the plot and was blown away by how gripping and funny it was. The film explores mental illness and the things that anchor our lives, and shows the highs and lows of unconditional love between family. Sorry if that sounds corny as hell, I don't usually write threads but I really wanted to see what others thought of this  Warning, I get a bit specific in regards to some plot points below. The film opens with Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) getting pulled out of a psychiatric facility by his parents. Pat recently suffered a mental breakdown after catching his wife, a teacher, having an affair with her coworker in their shower, nearly beating the guy to death as his wedding song played in the background. Turns out he's been ignorant of his mental illness until that point and we're introduced to his character as he's balls-deep in self improvement and taking charge of his life. His philosophy centers on the idea of looking for the silver linings, as you constantly hear him espouse in nearly every interaction he has for a time. His mental state quickly deteriorates and we see him go from manically optimistic to depressed and enraged. One scene has him waking up his father (Robert DeNiro) and mother (Jacki Weaver) at 3AM to tell them his critiques on the books his "wife" is teaching her students, another has him waking them up as he's tearing the house apart demanding to see his wedding video. We learn that the singular reason for his self-improvement is to get back with his wife, who took out a restraining order against him. All of this occurs early in the film and before long he's introduced to Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who's struggling with her own issues after her husband's recent death. Lawrence delivers my favorite performance of the film, throwing herself into Pat's life despite his delusions. Despite the somewhat-predictable plot I was enthralled by the film from beginning to end thanks to the excellent performances. Cooper sold it so well that I had felt a tinge of foreboding dread throughout nearly the entire film. As for DeNiro and Weaver, anyone who's dealt with mental illness in their family can appreciate their display of equal parts love and not having the slightest idea of how to handle the situation. I'd like to hear if anyone thinks the film did a disservice with its presentation of mental illness, some of my family felt it was wrong for them to end things as they did, implying that all is well once the crazies get together and cancel each other out.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 04:12 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 19:54 |
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Just because people have emotional problems doesn't mean they are insane and completely unfixable for their entire lives, it's really showing your ignorance about the field to assume that those two people would be broken forever. It's not surprising that they both showed marked improvement by taking their medication and developing routines and stability in their lives. That's sort of the whole point of the entire mental health field, PEOPLE ACTUALLY GET BETTER. I'm not sure why this point keeps on getting brought up in reviews, it's pretty stupid. They reference like 6 football games in a movie so that's more than enough time for the drugs and therapy to start having positive effects. Also, calling people 'crazy' is a huge no-no to anyone in the mental health field. #1 because it stigmatizes the patient, #2 because it can lead people to not seek treatment, and #3 it's diagnostically useless. My dad works in the field and I happened to use that term once at a get together he was having with co-workers and boy, did I get an earful. You saw what you did with it, as soon as you labelled them 'crazy' you were ready to write off one now medicated bipolar person and one emotionally unstable person as broken forever. It's really stupid, and unfortunately, really common.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 16:53 |
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I guess I missed the part when Pat went back on his meds? I thought that after he stopped taking them he never started up again. My point wasn't anything close to that bolded part of your post, it was that his problems seem to all but evaporate in a few months, off his meds. Also I wasn't using 'crazy' in the pejorative 'these people are broken' sense, I was using it as the film itself does. They jokingly throw it around as shorthand for their problems. Holy Calamity! fucked around with this message at Nov 24, 2012 around 17:39 |
| # ? Nov 24, 2012 17:32 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:I guess I missed the part when Pat went back on his meds? I thought that after he stopped taking them he never started up again. My point wasn't anything close to that bolded part of your post, it was that his problems seem to all but evaporate in a few months, off his meds. Yeah, there is a scene shortly after the wedding video incident where Pat starts taking his medication. It's a short scene, but it's quite poignant.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 18:10 |
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Professor Clumsy posted:Yeah, there is a scene shortly after the wedding video incident where Pat starts taking his medication. It's a short scene, but it's quite poignant. Ah, apologies then, that changes things quite a bit.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 18:22 |
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I thought it was alright. I saw it in London, and I think not knowing anything about American Football hurt the film a bit. I have never heard of the Philadelphia Eagles and don't really know the rules of American Football. You can work a bit of it out from the context, but the references to things like the "1 yard touchdown" (or whatever it was) just confused me. As did the overly complex betting scene towards the end that pretty much assumes you know what a point on a bet or a parlay is. I felt like a lot of stuff was going over my head. But Jennifer Lawrence was great.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 18:25 |
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Yeah, sorry for getting all worked up about it, it's just that my dad taught me that the word 'crazy' is really bad to use for the three reasons I outlined, and people will refuse to go for help/take their meds because they don't want to labelled that way. I did go see it at the theater in Philly that they used for the Halloween Scene, so that was kinda neat (it's like 4.5 miles from the LLanerch Diner so that was a hell of a stroll they took).
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 19:07 |
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Just got back from it and loved it. Great editing, and great cast all around. Speaking from personal experiences, the short pill scene really does nail that sense of defeat someone can feel when they decide to take medication. Also, I appreciated how they handled De Niro's OCD. I don't know how to describe it, and please tell me if this doesn't make sense, but even though at times the characters' quirks, neuroses and mental illnesses were used for comedy, I never felt it veered into the realm of cloying preciousness. There were actually some moments where I cut off my own laughter after quickly realizing how serious and depressing they really were.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 00:58 |
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Yes I was one of a few people laughing in the theater at some stuff. It really was the best blend of sadness and niceness. I really thought the movie was brilliant. It absolutely captured the 'feel' of Philadelphia, if that makes sense. I feel like in a lot of stuff lately De Niro has sort of just phoned it in (I haven't seen everything he's been in so feel free to point out good performances I've missed) but he really got deep into the role and knocked it out of the park. He is every blue collar eagles fan ever, and it's amazing.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 01:29 |
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can't stop thinking about this movie. It's an incredibly honest portrayal of bipolar disorder and the way it kinda uses a romantic comedy to tie things together is brilliant. One of those movies you just smile the entire way through.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 22:22 |
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This is out of limited release and now in wide release, correct? I thought that happened last week, but there are no showtimes in the New Orleans area for it  I've been hearing that it's getting a lot of praise and I want to see it!
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 22:48 |
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Holy Calamity! posted:Ah, apologies then, that changes things quite a bit. Its very short. They stayed longer on the mom expression then they did him taking his meds. Also, a lot of the scenes looked weird with odd (steady cam?) shots. They looked way out of place in the non-freaking out moments. Gumbel2Gumbel posted:Yes I was one of a few people laughing in the theater at some stuff. In my theater of other people were laughing as well. I'm fairly sure we're supposed to laugh. I never thought I was laughing at the illness...rather the characters funny lines. It built a lot of funny and slammed the breaks abruptly to ensure the next "serious" thing didn't have residual humor/laughter. Also, near the end it was jarring that his bi-polar disappeared after he put 2 and 2 with the letter, but hers issues stayed. Because of this it turned severely chick-flickey at the end. The boy is alright after all, and the damaged girl is loved again.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 23:56 |
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Huh, this thread dropped pretty fast for a prestige pic with three big stars (plus the first Chris Tucker role in like a decade). Anyway! So yeah, while I think some of the criticism I've seen of this movie sidesteps the fact that it's a romantic comedy - which it is, through and through, with many of the familiar trappings that entails - that shouldn't put you off from seeing this. Well, that shouldn't put you off in general, because gently caress you romantic comedies are perfectly cool much of the time. But this is certainly unusual in some regards, its characters more marginalized and three-dimensional than most of the cardboard cutouts that populate the types of film that spring to mind when the phrase "romantic comedy" is uttered. It helps that the cast is really terrific; it's especially nice to see Robert De Niro giving a poo poo again and stealing several scenes while going up against a pair of great performances from Cooper and Lawrence, and Chris Tucker is nicely understated and empathetic in a supporting role. They're all allowed to be flawed and very ugly people at several moments, though the script is suffused with enough humor (often very awkward humor stemming from Cooper and Lawrence's lack of social skills) to keep it from being a stuffy mental illness character study. I don't know that it necessarily does anything terribly new - maybe its treatment of mentally ill characters as somebody other than capital-c Crazies is more infrequent than I realize - but it does what it does very well. It's "pleasant," if "pleasant" didn't carry such a connotation of "inoffensively mild and digestible." I'd happily recommend it.
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| # ? Dec 16, 2012 07:35 |
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I really liked it. Great performances, original take on the convention of romcoms. Good characterisation too, and well made. I live in the UK and don't know much about football either but I figured it out pretty easily. The football obsession reminded me of Buffalo '66; there was another scene that reminded me strongly of another film which I've now forgotten...
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| # ? Dec 16, 2012 10:17 |
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This is playing over at the theater in my hometown. Not sure if I want to see it, it seems like it might hit a little close to home.
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| # ? Dec 16, 2012 11:10 |
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incoherent posted:Also, near the end it was jarring that his bi-polar disappeared after he put 2 and 2 with the letter, but hers issues stayed. Because of this it turned severely chick-flickey at the end. The boy is alright after all, and the damaged girl is loved again. I didn't really view it as her issue staying, honestly. I think in order to become how she was when she saw Nikki there, she had to get past her issue. I felt the fact that she had feelings that caused such an emotional response upon seeing Pat's ex-wife in the hotel was more proof that she was recovering than that she was still struggling.
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| # ? Dec 16, 2012 17:49 |
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Saw it last night, and absolutely loved it. I never thought I would be complementing Bradley Cooper's acting, but he knocked it out of the park. The scene where he searches for his wedding tape, and gets into a scuffle with his parents had me cringing and almost out of breath with how powerful it was, thanks to Cooper's acting. It also had some of of my biggest laugh out loud moments of any movie I've seen this year. When Tiffany suddenly hugs Patrick after their first argument, and Patrick says "Wait, what?" I absolutely lost it, and I think the whole theater turned around to see who laughed so loud. It was just so perfectly timed, and felt so organic. Hell, I say that all the time in those types of situations. And yes, Jennifer Lawrence cannot get enough praise. She was gorgeous, first of all (love that messy look her hair perpetually had), but in a single scene, she was able to be funny, sad, gross, and irresistible. I think my favorite sequence in the whole movie was her revealing that she's actually been good luck for the Eagles, with facts to back it up, and De Niro's character comes around on her. Her nonchalant sip of the beer killed me, it was so perfect. Even the musical choices were the tits. Two White Stripes songs, and a Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash duet? Yes please. It was also great to see De Niro caring again, and Chris Tucker was an unexpected, but very welcome addition. Seriously, I've been telling everyone to go out and see this movie, and you should too!
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| # ? Dec 16, 2012 18:05 |
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Reinanigans posted:Saw it last night, and absolutely loved it. I never thought I would be complementing Bradley Cooper's acting, but he knocked it out of the park. The scene where he searches for his wedding tape, and gets into a scuffle with his parents had me cringing and almost out of breath with how powerful it was, thanks to Cooper's acting.
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| # ? Dec 17, 2012 15:21 |
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therattle posted:That's what it was! The football scene you describe reminded me of My Cousin Vinny. Capiche? Holy poo poo you're right! I knew that scene reminded me of something and that's exactly it.
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| # ? Dec 18, 2012 20:47 |
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My mom dragged me to this on the pretense that it would be "good for me." (she also has a million ladyboners for Bradley Cooper). My biggest problem with this movie is that it is predicated on the idea that Patrick should get together with his friend's wife's sister instead of, you know, going to therapy and getting his life put together and getting his wife back. I'm not sure why everyone immediately forces him to move on and hook up with this random broken wing, but it makes no sense. If Nikki was truly done with Patrick, she would have filed for divorce long ago, when Pat was still in the hospital. Also, if I wanted to watch a Juliette Lewis movie, I'd prefer it actually have Juliette Lewis in it, not Jennifer Lawrence shamelessly aping her. Finally, and in the same way the earlier poster who has family in the mental health field had trouble with some of this movie's mental health 'liberties,' Jennifer Lawrence, though gorgeous, has nothing even resembling a dancer's body, and is hilariously more curvy and busty than a dancer would be. 37/100
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| # ? Dec 28, 2012 15:17 |
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I wanted to see this movie based off the trailer I had seen earlier this year (it was the Hemmingway scene) and somehow missed that it was a David O. Russel film until his name came up at the end credits. Which is funny because I <3 Huckabees is probably one of my favourite movies, definitely my most watched. I really loved it, it's funny, awkward, honest, really emotional, and a really great look at how individuals, families, and society react and deal with mental illness. All the acting was phenomenal, Bradly Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence really sell their parts, and their characters are really well defined, it never seems cheesy or overwrought, just really genuine. De Niro probably had the most moving scene though, where he's crying on his son's bed, saying he just wants him to get better, but wants to be part of it, and wants him because of his OCD sports thing, it's just, drat. And I really hope this means Chris Tucker is coming back to acting, because I love the guy.
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| # ? Dec 28, 2012 19:19 |
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Tharizdun posted:Jennifer Lawrence, though gorgeous, has nothing even resembling a dancer's body, and is hilariously more curvy and busty than a dancer would be. This is a preposterous complaint because she is not a professional dancer and one only gets a "dancer's body" from dancing for years.
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| # ? Dec 29, 2012 00:48 |
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DetoxP posted:This is a preposterous complaint because she is not a professional dancer and one only gets a "dancer's body" from dancing for years. Maybe they should have cast a dancer then. People don't go to Open competitions that are attended by pro- and semi-pro dancers unless they're serious. Which means she's probably been dancing for years. And yet - wrong casting choice.
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| # ? Dec 29, 2012 04:40 |
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DetoxP posted:This is a preposterous complaint because she is not a professional dancer and one only gets a "dancer's body" from dancing for years. Tharizdun posted:Maybe they should have cast a dancer then. People don't go to Open competitions that are attended by pro- and semi-pro dancers unless they're serious. Which means she's probably been dancing for years. And yet - wrong casting choice. Um... In the movie she specifically says that it's a hobby and therapy for her. I don't think its intended to be a serious professional desire of her character. She's a weekend warrior type dancer, just like all the guys at the gym playing hoops... only she dances.
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| # ? Dec 29, 2012 05:29 |
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Tharizdun posted:Maybe they should have cast a dancer then. People don't go to Open competitions that are attended by pro- and semi-pro dancers unless they're serious. Which means she's probably been dancing for years. And yet - wrong casting choice. This isn't a documentary about dancing also it seems you have some poo poo to work out perhaps tangentially related to the themes in this film.
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| # ? Dec 29, 2012 06:11 |
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Just saw it. I loved it. It was akin to Django in the sense that I can't name just one performance that knocked it out of the park, I thought everyone was fantastic. The subject matter hit very close to home but they handled it well. The medication scene made me straight-up cry, I think anyone who has ever battled emotional issues has had that happen to them at some point.
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| # ? Dec 31, 2012 05:42 |
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This movie was amazing. I think Bradley Cooper(never really cared for him before) and Jennifer Lawrence should both get Oscar noms and maybe a supporting one for Deniro. I teared up a bit at the end and I have never teared up during a romantic scene before. I was very excited to see this and I was actually thinking that I was too hyped for it and it would be a disappointment. It was even better than I thought it would be. I always enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence's acting but I never really found her to be attractive until this movie.
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| # ? Jan 3, 2013 19:54 |
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I just saw this and it was painfully good, one of those movies that makes me cynical that I won't see another I like this much anytime soon. The writing was able to get across the points without being sappy. The scene at the dinner table of comparing meds was about as realistic of a scene in a movie I've seen. I'm not sure if I've seen any films that are as easy to relate to as this one, I saw it with my mom and was trying to keep from tearing up, I was so impressed with the film's ability to keep from breaking my suspension of disbelief how most films do on some level.
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| # ? Jan 9, 2013 07:31 |
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What an incredible movie. I laughed, teared up, and cheered with the characters. Great performances from the entire cast. I thought I was going to hate Jennifer Lawrence's character when she first showed up but by the end she was my favorite part of the movie. My brother has had some issues like Pat throughout life and its caused a lot of strife for the family over the years, but he recently met a great girl and their wedding is coming up in a few weeks. So the movie really struck a cord with me. Give this movie all the Oscars.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 07:52 |
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Just finished watching it. I wouldn't say it was bad, because it wasn't, but I definitely don't think it lives up to all the hype it's been getting. It was better than most romantic comedies, yes, but it's still just a romantic comedy. I didn't feel like any of the actors/actresses involved gave really knockout performances. It was decent overall, but Best Picture material? Hardly.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 08:22 |
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Just finished watching it. I wouldn't say it was bad, because it wasn't, but I definitely don't think it lives up to all the hype it's been getting. It was better than most romantic comedies, yes, but it's still just a romantic comedy. I didn't feel like any of the actors/actresses involved gave really knockout performances. It was decent overall, but Best Picture material? Hardly. My exact thoughts. All the performances seemed okay, the same as every other good actor in other movies, but everyone's praising the poo poo out of it.
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| # ? Jan 12, 2013 20:51 |
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Just finished watching it. I wouldn't say it was bad, because it wasn't, but I definitely don't think it lives up to all the hype it's been getting. It was better than most romantic comedies, yes, but it's still just a romantic comedy. I didn't feel like any of the actors/actresses involved gave really knockout performances. It was decent overall, but Best Picture material? Hardly. I'll third this. It was alright, but no Huckabees.
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| # ? Jan 13, 2013 02:08 |
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I loved how they mixed comedy into a movie with characters that got mental issues. The movie was a nice change of pace from the average Romantic comedy. Shade2142 fucked around with this message at Jan 13, 2013 around 11:53 |
| # ? Jan 13, 2013 11:37 |
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Wait, so a romantic comedy -- no matter how good it is -- can ever be Best Picture material? That's the vibe I'm getting, and I totally disagree. I mentioned this in the general chat thread, but I got to show The Apartment as my first projecting gig, and Silver Linings Playbook reminds me a lot of that film, especially in how their protagonists learn to curb unhealthy patterns while rejecting the dominant cultural norms. Well, The Apartment won Best Picture in 1960, and Silver Linings Playbook at least deserves a nomination. Each year brings tons of lovely romantic comedies, sure, but a lot of great films from years past could be classified as romantic comedies and Silver Linings Playbook, in all its glory, recalls them. Keanu Grieves fucked around with this message at Jan 13, 2013 around 23:35 |
| # ? Jan 13, 2013 23:14 |
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Keanu Grieves posted:Wait, so a romantic comedy -- no matter how good it is -- can ever be Best Picture material? That's the vibe I'm getting, and I totally disagree. I didn't say that. I said SLP isn't Best Picture material. If a romantic comedy that had a really special, intricate plot and truly breathtaking performances had come out this year, I'd absolutely say it deserves a Best Picture nom. But that didn't happen. SLP never seemed to rise to that level where it really deserved an award of that caliber.
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| # ? Jan 14, 2013 00:28 |
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Keanu Grieves posted:Well, The Apartment won Best Picture in 1960, and Silver Linings Playbook at least deserves a nomination. Each year brings tons of lovely romantic comedies, sure, but a lot of great films from years past could be classified as romantic comedies and Silver Linings Playbook, in all its glory, recalls them.
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| # ? Jan 14, 2013 00:54 |
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David O Russell is my god. Jennifer Lawrence is a crazy babe. That about covers it. e: and about the whole oscar's debate: its stupid. SLPB is a very good movie, thus it should be up/be able to win some awards. De Niro's performance was his best in a while. e2: quote:one of those movies that makes me cynical that I won't see another I like this much anytime soon mynameisjohn fucked around with this message at Jan 15, 2013 around 05:02 |
| # ? Jan 15, 2013 04:58 |
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This film was incredibly difficult for me to watch, mostly because I kept seeing parts of myself and my problems in Cooper's role. That said, I absolutely loved it, wonderful performances by all.
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| # ? Jan 15, 2013 05:04 |
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Cooper's arc was pretty much perfect. "Fixing" himself by confronting his issues/triggers, overcoming them, and becoming happy with himself/life is how a lot of mental health issues can be solved. Not by locking yourself up and taking medication.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2013 19:54 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 19:54 |
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Shade2142 posted:I loved how they mixed comedy into a movie with characters that got mental issues. The movie was a nice change of pace from the average Romantic comedy. I watched it, and my friend and I agreed it's one of the best romantic comedies ever made. What makes the movie work is that A)It doesn't have the characters being stupid/making stupid decisions and B)It's not a cliche of what's been done before/not boring. When the characters do make bad decisions- it can be partially blamed on mental illness and it's within context. Also unlike most romantic comedies the last act isn't devoted to a character trying to apologize to the other over a mistake etc. Every actor deserves the accolades they've been getting. If nothing else- it has the most restrained and ungrating role Chris Tucker has ever done. Tharizdun posted:Finally, and in the same way the earlier poster who has family in the mental health field had trouble with some of this movie's mental health 'liberties,' Jennifer Lawrence, though gorgeous, has nothing even resembling a dancer's body, and is hilariously more curvy and busty than a dancer would be. This is the most ridiculous thing because NOT having a dancer's body etc was intentional. I thought I could have been wrong, but then I read how David O asked Jennifer to GAIN weight for the role- and the weight was hard to keep on due to the constant dancing/rehearsals.
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| # ? Jan 17, 2013 23:23 |
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