The Jennifer Lawrence Situation

First, i'd just like to acknowledge that I know I said I was going to post yesterday, but I had the opportunity to go see American Hustle before going to work and that offer was just too tempting.  So in short, I would like to apologize to the handful of people that might have been looking forward to hearing from me yesterday.

As for today, I have the great pleasure of writing about my favorite actress (by far):  the beautiful, the charming, the talented Jennifer Lawrence.

I mean come on.  Look at her, and tell me with a straight face that she is not beautiful.  Now, that last sentence may hurt my credibility in that some might think I chose her as my favorite actress solely based on my fondness of her appearance; which couldn't be farther from the truth.  But, I firmly believe that the love I have for her is based on my infatuation with her acting ability just as much as her looks.  If I saw her randomly walking down the street, and I was unaware that she was one of the most popular working actresses in hollywood today; I have no doubt that I would find her attractive.  But the factor that causes her, in my mind, to go from another pretty face to my full blown celebrity crush is her acting ability.

Lets be honest, I like many of you saw Jennifer Lawrence for the first time in a leading role in the first Hunger Games movie in the summer of 2012.  I really enjoyed the movie.  I did.  I walked out impressed, most likely because I had low low expectations for the movie as a whole.  But, I will admit that I was not a Jennifer Lawrence fanatic upon seeing The Hunger Games.  I was now full aware of her presence and put on notice that she had some talent.  I did remember seeing her in X men: First Class the previous year as she portrayed Mystique alongside James Mcavoy and the great Michael Fassbender, but she was an afterthought once it was all said and done; mostly because I could not stop focusing on the Professor X- Magneto dynamic.  After these two movies, Lawrence's popularity was rising fast, and I as a movie enthusiast was aware of this. But.......the film that changed everything for me......was Silver Linings Playbook.  My god, what a great movie.  It was the perfect storm.  Bring in a quality leading man:  Bradley Cooper. Check.  A leading actress whose stock is rising ever so highly:  Jennifer Lawrence.  Check.  Throw in some complimentary actors and a great director:  Robert De niro, Chris Tucker, and David O Russell respectively.  Check check.  I was really looking forward to it due to the cast and the oscar buzz that was surrounding it, and boy did it not disappoint.  Cooper had me convinced he was mentally insane through the first 30 minutes or so based solely off his demeanor and dialogue.  De niro was vintage and brought a great complimentary piece to the Cooper and Lawrence relationship.  But lets be straight here, this was the coming out party for Jennifer Lawrence as a fantastic, Oscar worthy dramatic actress.  She absolutely stole the show. Her performance as the sarcastic, unemotional yet clearly troubled widow was the perfect compliment to Coopers character who had clear issues of his own.  As the movie goes on, the progression of their relationship is so magnificent that it makes you want Cooper to just stop worrying about his damn ex wife and just pick Lawrence up and carry her off into the sunset.  I love when actors give performances that make you, the viewer, develop an emotional connection to the character.  The best actors and directors are the ones that can make the audience feel emotionally invested in a person that doesn't exist.  Lawrence, to me, did that to a great extent in this film, and I have been the biggest Jennifer Lawrence fan ever since.  It was no surprise to me that she won the academy award for best actress of the year for her role in that movie.  I'll also contend that Cooper should have won the Oscar for acting that year, but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis simply because Daniel Day-Lewis is Daniel Day-Lewis and was in a period piece about one of the most famous historical figures of all time in a movie directed by Steven Spielberg.   But that argument is for a different time.  Back to J-Law.  Ever since her Oscar, she has continued to knock it out of the park with the second Hunger Games movie and the recently released American Hustle(both of which I will be doing a review on).  I'll let you in on a secret, Lawrence will be nominated for another academy award for American Hustle, and she will win.  I say this not because she is my favorite actress, but because she will truly have deserved it.  Overall, as long as she continues to make movies you will be hearing me talk about her, and I believe that she will continue to remain one of the most popular and well respected actresses in Hollywood; and the fact that I can say that confidently....puts a smile on my face.

Okay! From here on out, I will start posting movie reviews a couple times a week, while trying to post at least something everyday.  The movie reviews at first will be more frequent because I want to review a couple that have been out for a while.  The reviews you can expect include, Gravity, Thor: The Dark World, Bad Grandpa, Catching Fire, Frozen, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, 12 Years a Slave, and many more.  My reviews will be separated into two different sections.  The first will be for people who have NOT seen the movie and would like to know if I think it is worth seeing.  The second section will be much more detailed and very SPOILER FILLED, and should only be read if you have seen the movie already.  I'm very excited to start talking about these movies, and engage in some friendly debate.  Until next time, I hope you have a splendid rest of your day.

- Big D