Ranking December 2015's Movies From Worst To Best

14. Joy

RottenTomatoes Score: 57% (6.2) Box Office: Produced for an inconceivable $60 million, Joy nevertheless opened above projections, and has made a little over half its budget back to date. Even so, given the super-strong performance of David O. Russell's two previous Jennifer Lawrence-led films (both of which cost significantly less than $60 million), it's something of a comedown. Verdict: David O. Russell disappoints considerably with a tepid drama that he clearly hoped would subsist solely on the strength of Jennifer Lawrence's strong performance. Yes, she's feisty and commands the screen at all times, but Russell hasn't found an especially interesting subject this time, and his storytelling method, complete with surreal interjections, is more weird and disjointed than smartly unconventional. The likes of Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper add a little flavour to proceedings, and though never less than watchable, overall it just feels like a shoulder shrug of a movie.