I had some misgivings about Joy—namely, that it looked a lot like David O. Russell pandering to feminists. But after seeing Jennifer Lawrence's acting in the final, interminable Hunger Games movies amount to stony-faced pouting, it's a huge relief to see her back in the game as a character slowly self-actualizing in the face of pretty terrible odds. If this is what his pandering looks like, maybe Russell should do it more often. by Megan Burbank