It's alright but I dont love how it handles mental health and i hate how many people put that aspect of the film on this weird pedestal.
What does Era think of Joker (2019)?
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I'll always remember it for being the center of the most absurd moral panic in recent memory.
The movie itself was all right. I think I like it a bit more now than I did when I first saw it.
The movie itself was all right. I think I like it a bit more now than I did when I first saw it.
Great character study propelled by a great performance. The tone is quite heavy and bleak, but appropriate to the story.
I wouldn't want Phoenix's Joker to be the sole official version, and I still prefer Ledger's performance, but there's really no need to choose because they both stand as excellent interpretations of the character.
I wouldn't want Phoenix's Joker to be the sole official version, and I still prefer Ledger's performance, but there's really no need to choose because they both stand as excellent interpretations of the character.
I watched it as part of my best picture nominations marathon and remember being underwhelmed, especially compared to the rest of the nominees. Haven't really thought about it since.
I do think its a good film, but its pretty much just Phoenix that carries it, and he really can carry it. But I'd still just say its a 4/5 overall.
i realise i'm a bit of a jackass for saying this, but i haven't seen it because i don't _give a fuck_ about todd phillips's work and whatever it is he has to say here
To me, the only thing interesting about the film was Pheonix. I thought it was pretentious, the script was pretty bad, and its blatant inspiration of particularly The King of Comedy just made me compare this movie unfavourably to better films.
I will say, though, the score was pretty good!
I will say, though, the score was pretty good!
I would say it's a really good movie with a script that is only "alright." Very derivative of Taxi Driver, but I feel that the final act with the talk show is different enough for it to stand on its own feet.
It's a fascinating social phenomenon how liberals have transitioned from "violent videogames and other media do not cause anti-social behaviour" to "this vaguely conservative story is going to promote untold social damage."
Duke Nukem is my favourite example since the side saying "it's just a game" and the side saying "it will corrupt the youth" changes completely depending on the decade.
It's a fascinating social phenomenon how liberals have transitioned from "violent videogames and other media do not cause anti-social behaviour" to "this vaguely conservative story is going to promote untold social damage."
Duke Nukem is my favourite example since the side saying "it's just a game" and the side saying "it will corrupt the youth" changes completely depending on the decade.
It's hard to talk about this movie without a conversation that includes this angle because this movie makes the Joker sympathetic to a certain extent and at it's core, that's a mistake that robs the movie of its impact. We should be horrified of what the joker is doing but the movie gives us out after out after out to feel sorry for the guy and hand wave away his behavior as mental illness and I think it short changes what mental illness is and instead plays to the cheap seats and the "misunderstood" types.
The only good parts of this film are the performances that seem to work in spite of the script and it's very well directed. Instead of being more than the sum of its parts it's dramatically less because the direction and the performances don't do anything to alleviate how awful the script is. It's just an angry, vapid and empty movie that seems like it has something to say but it doesn't say anything at all.
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Great performance from Phoenix. Everything else wasn't quite as good. A different Joker origin story. He does some horrific stuff and the audience is supposed to feel sympathetic over and over for him? Couldn't feel sorry for him no matter how bad his mental illness became. My brother loved the movie though. 3.5/5
Funny enough I saw Taxi Driver for the first time after watching this. Way better movie. Joker was a weaker version of it.
Funny enough I saw Taxi Driver for the first time after watching this. Way better movie. Joker was a weaker version of it.
It's a serious movie for serious people. A throwback to older movies, competently made, with a Joker paint coat so it feels new, but really, a few changes and nobody would associate it with DC and wouldn't see the need to, the Joker of Joker isn't the Joker of other DC movies / Comics.
I liked it, but didn't really care for all the "this movie is important ", it's a great Joaquin Phoenix performance and a decent setting, with a this is a "comic book movie" disguise to have people go to the cinema.
I liked it, but didn't really care for all the "this movie is important ", it's a great Joaquin Phoenix performance and a decent setting, with a this is a "comic book movie" disguise to have people go to the cinema.
Went in thinking I would LOVE it.
Watched it only a couple months ago, and other than Phoenix performance...damn...what a disappointment.
Just overall kind of a mess, and a poor copy of much better films.
Watched it only a couple months ago, and other than Phoenix performance...damn...what a disappointment.
Just overall kind of a mess, and a poor copy of much better films.
Adam Driver got robbed.
That and I don't like how this films success is going to result with more films from The Hangover Hack Todd Phillips.
That and I don't like how this films success is going to result with more films from The Hangover Hack Todd Phillips.
I keep seeing this take and kept thinking it was just people being ironic or making a joke out of it. It just seems like such a weird comparison to make... Like, this isn't a superhero movie. It's only just barely, and pretty weakly, connected to a superhero mythos of some kind.
Haven't seen it and the amount of cringeworthy photos of people out there that seem to idolize him and dress up like him etc makes me want to steer clear.
I think it's a well made film from a technical perspective, but I hated it. One of the only movies of the last 10 years that I've watched that I can say I truly hated. My wife wanted to watch it and I really didn't want to, but sat through it.
If you gave me the choice of watching 2.5 hours of Coco Melon or Joker, I'd choose Coco Melon. And I hate Coco Melon.
If you gave me the choice of watching 2.5 hours of Coco Melon or Joker, I'd choose Coco Melon. And I hate Coco Melon.
Nowhere near as bad or amazing as people make it out to be. The story is a series of exhausted cliché's playing off as if it's showing you something you've never seen before and while I think the "it's just Taxi Driver again" criticism is a bit unfair, it's also not unreasonable to suggest that Todd Phillips was likely a very big fan of that film.
I liked that it tried to do a couple of new things in the Batman world that we haven't seen before. Any time a story teller tries to pull at the seams of comic book lore to introduce an alternative take or suggest a different sequence of known events, it catches my interest. I loved the sickly late 70's/early 80's color palette. You could almost smell the dumpster overflow and gasoline in some of those shots- I least I could.
The dialogue has a few bright spots but overall I found the writing to be a major weakness. Even Phoenix's delicate and beautiful performance couldn't save that awful speech at the end. It sounded like a high schooler trying to tell his class the thesis in his film class. "THIS IS WHAT THE MOVIE WAS ABOUT THE WHOLE TIME". Come on.
So yeah, I fall in the middle.
There are some incredible strengths here but equally, there are some really painfully amateur weaknesses.
Definitely worth a watch and always interesting to talk about.
I liked that it tried to do a couple of new things in the Batman world that we haven't seen before. Any time a story teller tries to pull at the seams of comic book lore to introduce an alternative take or suggest a different sequence of known events, it catches my interest. I loved the sickly late 70's/early 80's color palette. You could almost smell the dumpster overflow and gasoline in some of those shots- I least I could.
The dialogue has a few bright spots but overall I found the writing to be a major weakness. Even Phoenix's delicate and beautiful performance couldn't save that awful speech at the end. It sounded like a high schooler trying to tell his class the thesis in his film class. "THIS IS WHAT THE MOVIE WAS ABOUT THE WHOLE TIME". Come on.
So yeah, I fall in the middle.
There are some incredible strengths here but equally, there are some really painfully amateur weaknesses.
Definitely worth a watch and always interesting to talk about.
The hospital scene with the pillow ruined it for me. Then they had to shoehorn what happens to the Wayne family because of course they had to.
yep, this is where I'm at.
On top of that its an insane amount of contrivances to get Arthur to his breaking point - like the rich dudes on the subway beating him up for laughing, the boss firing him for being robbed, the social worker losing funding. It's all just absurd. And the Thomas Wayne stuff is just awful. If you think this movie is a masterpiece fine, but I thought it was a 2 star at best.
One of the very few comic book movies I've enjoyed in recent years. It deserved all the great reviews and awards it got. It's incredible to me how the movie is so fucking good, it made people forget they were watching a movie about the Joker, and thought the movie was trying to teach everyone a lesson about mental health lol. At the end of the day, it's a Joker movie that tied into Batman by the end of it. Yes, a guy that dresses like a bat, and it was done beautifully. The ending to this movie is something to behold, I loved it. You know the movie did something great when a certain crowd started hating on the movie long before it even came out in theaters.
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I've thought about this "flip" quite a bit and what needs to be recognized IMO is that the nature of these moral panics has shifted very dramatically and within the last 15ish years. And the short answer is that the moral panicking has become distinctly partisan.
On the right the fear-mongering is no longer just about children being corrupted but about children being corrupted into liberal Democrats - the DNC has in turn been mainstream demonized into this cult seeking world domination, with how deep you are in the rabbit hole determining whether you see them as evil people or as space lizards in human skin. Meanwhile the left is still effectively reacting to Gamergate: there's been this increased recognition of right-wing radicalization in nerd culture, how the right is plunging into nerd fandoms as recruitment grounds, and how a lot of that spilled into the rise of Trump. The unfortunate side effect of the latter is a lot of preemptive jumping at shadows (some of which is purposefully instigated by the right as a form of anti-trolling) with Joker being a notable swing and miss.
