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the latest controversial comic book movie joker directed by Todd Phillips and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur fleck a man who feels disregarded by everyone
around him he works as a sign twirl ER he points people towards deals dressed
up like a clown, he lives in a ratty old apartment with a sick mother he's often
beaten up on the streets and because of all this his world slowly begins to crumble
and he finds himself being pushed towards violence there has been so much talk
and discourse surrounding this movie and all of it has been a joyI've loved
every minute of it all of the takes it's been so great the Joker is my favorite
comic book villain ever so automatically I have a bit of bias but in films
past as you know whenever that character was involved in the movie Batman was
also there so there was a good and evil presence now we're just focusing on
this person and his origin and at first I was a little averse to that because
I loved the idea of the Joker not really having an origin I loved him being a
constant the idea that he has just always been this way and his past is so
murky that he's even more terrifying Nolan understood that pretty well with his
Dark Knight film but that's not to say that that origin has never been explored
in comics before and so I opened myself up to this idea and I loved this film I
think it is wonderful Joaquin Phoenix, in particular, is mesmerizing everything
I
had heard about this performance is true and yet he somehow still surprised me
he is deserving of an Oscar nomination based off of the other performances that
I've seen so far in 2019 the film leans very heavily into this being a character that is downtrodden in life you do feel sympathy for him because you
understand just how shitty his life has been based on this portrayal and
that could be dangerous you could fall into being a bit sappy or syrupy you
know asking for too much sentimentality for this guy making you feel sorry for
him constantly but Joaquin Phoenix and his performance treads that line really
beautifully because even when you feel like damn I feel bad for you because
your life is such shit you also see this brewing darkness behind his eyes where you no longer feel bad for him you actually are getting scared of this guy
and it is a very realistic and probable portrayal of how somebody might become
somebody like the Joker you understand why he decides to choose a life of crime
over anything else because life has never really given him something else to live
for and just when he thought there could be no other Joker laughs or another
take at this laughs Phoenix once again surprises with something that feels
painful like there are times where he's laughing and then you can tell that his
throat catches and he starts coughing and he holds his chest like laughing this
hard is actually physically painful for him and I thought that was fucking
brilliant such a great idea like I'm not gonna get into the compare game
because that's just pointless plus I've only seen this movie once but this is
definitely able to stand side by side with what Ledger did Ledger is iconic and
that performance will never be outdone in my opinion but what Phoenix does here
is wholly his own it feels unique to him it feels like something only he could
do and his work as Joker is fierce and ferocious he eats the screen every a single time he's in a frame which thankfully is quite often it's also really well
shot the cinematography the color palette beautiful gorgeous movie doesn't feel
like a comic book film feels like a drama because it is a drama
I wouldn't even
really call this a thriller this is absolutely a character study and its inspirations
are very obvious if you've seen any of Scorsese's films namely the two behind
me king of comedy and taxi driver I mean they've cast Robert De Niro as a talk
show host in this movie and I don't think that was a mistake that is one of my
biggest issues with the movie it is very inspired by the blueprint taxi driver
there are key visuals in the film that feel like they are taken from the taxi
driver, there are direct visual nods and hints to a taxi driver and KF comedy there
is just a little bit too much of that it's not that this film doesn't feel like
its own thing and it's not like the movie is a copy and paste or anything it's
certainly, its own film breathe to live wonderfully by what Joaquin Phoenix is
doing on screen but you can't escape the fact that it is absolutely inspired by
those films that came before it which all films are inspired by something
obviously, it's just that in the case of this movie it's a little more obvious
one of the biggest challenges with a film like this is taking a character who
is turning towards evil and having him be the protagonist how do you carry a character like this throughout the whole movie without having that good person
like Batman to come in and say hey this is wrong maybe a bad cell forever but I
think at the same time the lack of a heroic character is what makes this film special
because it makes the audience ask some hard questions question s like what role
do we play in creating the Joker the person who does something horrible in the world do we have a cog in that wheel are we part of that system is there away
in which we've contributed to this even though we're not the ones pulling the
trigger the fact that a comic book movie is asking harsh questions like this is
really great the score also is super haunting and really chilling and it's
minimal to the point where it doesn't feel like it's overstaying it's welcome
it never feels like it's becoming more than what it should be it just feels
like that great addition to some of the more creepy scenes that really help you
feel that this guy is slowly becoming unhinged some people have addressed
concerns that this film perhaps glorifies violence or condones violence or
makes you feel sympathy for this character and makes you understand and even
side with him when he does horrible things those are valid concerns and me
understand those concerns the problem that
I have with them is that that is the
Joker character the Joker character looks at the world thinks it's hilariously
hypocritical and uses violence to point that out I mean the Dark Knight came
out in 2008 and we had that great Hospital scene where the Joker is looking at
two-faced and he's like if I tell the press that like a gangbanger will get
shot at nobody panics but if I say that what little old mayor will die well
then everyone mr.wise that's the character and this is not a surprise to me
that we're seeing a portrayal of the Joker I feel like people forgot that the
Joker is a fucking mass-murdering sociopath like did what were they expecting
he was gonna like tickle people to death also I feel like people who are
concerned about the violence in this movie haven't watched a movies taxi driver
came out in the 70s for God's sakes and it was very controversial I mean I
wasn't there but I've read plenty of reviews from that era and people were very
concerned about the way it depicts Travis Bickle and that you kind of side with
him and understand why he loses his fucking mind this is not something that's
uncommon in films a character who goes off the deep end and kills people this is
something that we've examined in films and documentaries for decades there's a reason
why there are so many documentaries about the Zodiac killer or various murderers
on Netflix people are fascinated by what would bring someone to this point and
after the discussion I heard about the movie's level of violence I was expecting
it to be a lot more graphic than it is if you were bothered by this film you
would never get through martyrs like that's a violent movie this film is not
even as violent as Dead pool that's just like a fact it's just taken more
seriously and so people are bothered by
it the last thing I'll say about this controversy and keep in mind
I've never
made a single tweet about this Facebook post nothing this is the only time I've
ever discussed this that's why I'm talking about this people have not seen this
movie and they've been talking about this controversy for months now okay so like I've been holding it inside in regards to the main criticism does this movie
condone violence is it siding with a mass murderer no I don't think it condones the violence I just think it's depicting it I think we are seeing a portrayal of
how someone might lose it and do horrible things and choose that it's not
saying hey this is the route to happiness it's saying carefully because this
could be how it ends up that's all and I think the fact that we're having this
discussion at all about a comic book film is really great now granted this the movie isn't flawless or anything but I would rather watch a movie like this
over some of the more throw away disposable superhero films that are entertaining
while you're watching them but are you really thinking about it afterward sometimes
sure sometimes there are really great ones like Thor Ragnarok or the first Iron
Man or Avengers and game and all that shit yeah those are good movies they're
fun to watch but you know I'm actually thinking about shit after this movie is
I sat around with my friends afterward and we fucking talked for like two
hours about the film and that's saying something so with Joaquin Phoenix's
excellent performance Todd Phillips and his sure hand behind the camera the
gorgeous cinematography the great score this is a really good movie I wish it
didn't follow the blueprint of a taxi driver to such a tee but nevertheless I
think this is the best version of a Joker origin story we could have gotten in
a film it doesn't follow everything about the comics and that's fine I like
that it's different I like that it takes liberties all good adaptations should
you should not follow the source
material to such scrutiny that there are no surprises there's no originality
there's no voice and this movie has all of those I'm gonna give Joker an
a-minus I was riveted by this movie from just about start to finish I think it's
really really good and time will tell on its impact and whether or not it was
really worth all this fuss more than likely it wasn't and in about a year or
with the way time goes now in about three months we'll be on to the next thing
but for now, this is the current film controversy and I'm very curious to see
how this plays out I'm also very excited for you guys to see the movie and me
hope you enjoy it so thank you very much as always and if you like this you comments write here
and get stuck mine eyes
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