The Playlist

Review: Big-Hearted & Hilarious 'Silver Linings Playbook' A Touchdown From David O. Russell

By Kevin Jagernauth
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November 15, 2012 11:56 AM
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3 Comments

Reviews

Life hasn't been too kind lately for Pat Solitano. He's just been released from a court ordered stint in a mental hospital after severly beating the man he caught cheating with his wife. Diagnosed as bipolar with mood swings, Pat has a difficult journey ahead of him but he's optimistic. With a rallying cry of "Excelsior," he believes that you can take "all negativity and make it a silver lining." His outlook is positive and he hopes to rebuild himself to win his wife back who has a restraining order out on him. And so begins David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook," an enormously entertaining, crowd-pleasing winner from the director whose comedic edge has never been sharper.

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David O. Russell, Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence Talk 'Midnight Meat Train,' Dancing & More In 'Silver Linings Playbook'

By Jen Vineyard
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November 15, 2012 10:04 AM
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8 Comments

News

"Silver Linings Playbook" is one of those rare films that embraces all of life's messy contradictions. It's romantic, but not schmaltzy. It's about sports fans -- the really obsessive ones -- but it's also for non-sports fans who've never watched a football game (or would never want to). It's about mental illness, but without turning anyone living with or recovering from one into a caricature, contrasting bipolarity with so-called normal obsessive emotional states, without compromising what any of them really are. Writer/director David O. Russell achieves a tricky balancing act, thanks to the performances of his cast (Bradley Cooper as a bipolar man with anger management issues fresh out of a mental institution, Jennifer Lawrence as a recovering sex addict, and Robert De Niro as an obsessive-compulsive and superstitious gambler, also with anger management issues).

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7 New Photos From 'Silver Linings Playbook'; Film Gets Released One Week Early In Limited Release Thanks To Strong Buzz

By Edward Davis
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November 5, 2012 1:56 PM
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0 Comments

News

It's unquestionable at this point. Even if you haven't seen David O. Russell's dramedy "Silver Linings Playbook" about mental illness, marital failure and more (which is the boat most of the writers of this site are in), it's pretty damn clear that the film, which won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival, is super crowd-pleasing, while sharp, funny and biting (our review from Toronto called it "hilarious and heartfelt"). Russell seemed to perfect the winning ratio of comedy to drama in "The Fighter" and it seems he's done the same with his latest. To wit: word of mouth on the film is evidently so high -- it's played virtually every film festival of the fall to huge accolades -- The Weinstein Company are moving up the film one week in limited release in 10 markets, including NY, LA, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, DC, Miami, San Diego and Austin, who will all get to see the film before its wide release on November 21st.

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We Don't Have To Talk About It: New Clip & TV Spot For 'Silver Linings Playbook' With Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 31, 2012 7:53 PM
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3 Comments

News

After premiering at TIFF where it snagged the Audience Award, the buzz around David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" has perhaps dipped a little as the awards season conversation has turned to "Argo," but don't expect that to last for long. The picture opened the Savannah Film Festival over the weekend, Jessie J's (terrible) song for the film has hit the web, and with the movie now a few weeks away from hitting theaters, you can expect The Weinstein Company to turn up the heat.

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Oscars: Can Mary Elizabeth Winstead Sneak Into The Best Actress Field For 'Smashed'?

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 15, 2012 11:59 AM
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19 Comments

Awards

We've been looking in detail at the acting categories in recent weeks, and this week, we figured it made sense to examine Best Actress, given that one potential contender has her film arriving in theaters. Today sees the release of "Smashed," which sees "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" star Mary Elizabeth Winstead play a schoolteacher who comes to realize that she has a serious drinking problem, and sets about kicking the habit, even as it puts her marriage to her equally sozzled husband (Aaron Paul) at risk.

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Drugs, Dysfunction & Family: Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence Discuss Their Depression Meds In 'Silver Linings Playbook'

By Edward Davis
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October 3, 2012 6:25 PM
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4 Comments

News

Misery loves company and in the case of "Silver Linings Playbook," the new Weinstein Company comedy, dysfunctional fuck-ups seem to travel in packs as well. Directed by David O. Russell ("The Fighter") and an adaptation of Matthew Quick's novel of the same name, "Silver Linings Playbook" centers on a former teacher who moves back in with his parents after a stint in a mental institution. Things get more challenging when the teacher, Pat (Bradley Cooper), meets a mysterious girl (Jennifer Lawrence) with deep-rooted problems of her own that may be even more messed up than his own. Their mutual issues seem to be the myriad depression medication they've both been on which you can see in this new clip.

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She's My Friend With A Capital F: Watch The New 'Silver Linings Playbook' Trailer

By Edward Davis
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September 28, 2012 3:07 PM
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1 Comment

News

David O. Russell has come a long way. "I Heart Huckabees" wasn't much of a hit in 2004, and its difficult production (culminating in a notorious viral video with Lily Tomlin) went widely public. His following picture, "Nailed," still remains on a shelf (it was abandoned when financial problems shut the film down before it was complete), and the filmmaker struggled to mount several projects, but none came to fruition. This all changed in 2010 with "The Fighter," which scored seven Oscar nominations in 2011 including Best Picture and Best Director.

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Review: 'House At The End Of The Street' Is Like 'Twilight' Meets 'The Devil's Rejects' (And Totally Awful)

By Drew Taylor
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September 21, 2012 8:03 AM
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10 Comments

Reviews

All of the promotional materials for the woeful new horror film "House at the End of the Street" promote it as your standard cheap-o chiller – a plucky blonde with a fondness for clingy cotton T-shirts, Jennifer Lawrence is doggedly menaced by backwoods psychos after leaving her urban upbringing for a life of rural serenity. Except that's not what it is. No. It's far, far worse. Instead, "House at the End of the Street" is like one of the "Twilight" films mixed with "The Devil's Rejects," full of half-baked psychology, borderline inept filmmaking, and an undercurrent of deeply ugly misogyny that is scary, but not in the way the creative team intended. Forget about what happens in the movie, the mere act of watching "House at the End of the Street" is an act of torture.

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WTF? Watch Jennnifer Lawrence Sing Love Ballad About Being Murdered In Horror Film 'House At The End Of The Street'

By Edward Davis
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September 18, 2012 6:26 PM
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0 Comments

News

"Why do you still live in the house your parents got killed in?" Jennifer Lawrence asks actor Max Thieriot in this music video clip from "House At The End Of The Street." Oh you, know, it's just your average sweet acoustic ballad/love song from a horror film where everyone gets murdered real good.

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New Images From 'The House At The End Of The Street' Move In

By Kevin Jagernauth
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September 14, 2012 1:47 PM
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2 Comments

News

Before Jennifer Lawrence can begin the Oscar campaign for her excellent performance in David O. Russell's crowd-pleasing and hilarious "The Silver Linings Playbook" (read our review here), she'll have one hurdle to deftly navigate around -- the low-budget horror flick "The House At The End Of The Street." And with the movie dropping next weekend, more images have hit.

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