Not high art, but refreshing to see actual acting in a comic book movie.
Especially after they made an entire island of warrior women do Israeli accents just to paper over the fact that their lead actress can't fake a different one.
I just didn't watch this movie for years because I was thinking just like the reviewer here. This year I finally watched it and... it was ok. The biggest reason to see it was because I really like Joaquin Phoenix and I wanted to see the movie from which he won his Oscar.
There's a lot of things in his Joker performance worth a revisit: how he talks, and how he moves, is really unique and definitely worth the victory. I just wish he would've got his Oscar from The Master, which for me is a groundbreaking movie and has one of the best scenes of all time with Joaquin and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the jail cell.
But he got it from the Joker, and I'm glad he got the recognition.
Joaquin carried the fuck out of Joker and his performance, as usual, was spectacular. Unfortunately, for me at least, that's where the merits of the film ended. I get that it resonated with a lot of people so maybe I am just not in the right headspace to truly appreciate the message, but ultimately I share the thoughts of the reviewer in the OP on this one.
It was a Taxi Driver remake that licensed a DC character instead of paying Scorsese. It was solidly okay.
But Phoenix 100% earned the Oscar with it.
I fully agree with you. We also went to see Napoleon because of him and were left disappointed. Please hire him for a great movie, somebody! PTA is making a new movie, so maybe we're lucky?
Good movie IMO, solid 7/10.
Solid 5/7 for me.
A perfect score, nice
With rice?
Worth the watch then? Looking to add some new movies to my collection
Yes, worth the watch.
Just keep expectations neutral, this one is also unique in that it focuses more on decline of society, dark movie.
I bought the movie in UHD 4K DVD. I watched it one time and donated the DVD. I won't be watching it again. Worth a watch? I guess? Maybe? Do you like feeling like shit after watching a movie? Then it's definitely worth a watch. Phoenix is my favorite actor, and I think he's the most talented actor in Hollywood, but I did not enjoy watching his psychosis.
Felt like the message of the movie was society is rotten, but protesting is even worse. Kinda lame.
The message was that an oppressive society makes violence inevitable, and that violence cannot be controlled by anyone, not even the people who do it.
I saw it in the theater and glad I did. What I saw on the screen was a reflection of my own mental problems. A lot of people didn't see themselves up there, and that's totally cool. But it's pretty disingenuous to wave the movie off like it had zero meaning.
And that werewolf scene is classic cinema.
I thought it was pretty good for a King of Comedy/Taxi Driver remake
the movie was better than i expected but... what?
Why does every piece of media need to be the deepest thing ever? Or why do we have to assume media is trying to be? This to me sounds like when people call music pretentious simply because it's a combination of something they don't like and also not like things normally on the radio. It's even weirder in a case like this when the movie is a blockbuster film and not some indie joint.
In the case of this movie a lot of people were saying it was an important and deep move. So this review is more a reaction the tremendous over hype joker got from some groups of people.
And in valiant battle against the edginess they just became more edge. Criticism doesn't get much lower than basing the review on the "tremendous over hype" of others. That just makes the critic a tool.
It’s expectation
They went in expecting it to be deep
If you expect ocean of course you won't like swimming in a pool.
The truly outstanding thing about Joker was the OST by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Other than that, it was...fine.
You guys are crazy! Joker is a nuanced and thoughtful study on the ripple effects of sustained trauma and Joaquin Phoenix's performance is perhaps the best of his carrier. No, wait, sorry I was thinking of "You Were Never Really Here" (2017)
Anybody notice the Batman villain as social anxiety trend? Leger's Joker channeled Islamic terrorists, Phoenix's channeled lone wolf shooters, while Dano's Riddler was an incel.
Edit: i made a change
This whole trend of trying to make villains deeper and giving them reasons to be assholes needs to stop. It's rationalizing asshole behavior. Plenty of people have shitty things happen to them without turning into monsters.
I'd say the ubermench protagonists who are assholes, but their behavior is justified by being superior is a bigger problem. Think of Sherlock, Rick Sanchez, or Tony Stark.
Getting some Boss Baby vibes from this
I like the movie a lot 🤷♂️
YOWCH
I just want to say the comments in this thread are very interesting to read and thought provoking. Just taking a moment to appreciate this community.
Huge review
i dislike that sentiment so much. no one is saying joker is a deep movie, you’re just too far up your own ass to be able to enjoy something “simple” for what it is. joker is a very decent movie with a great performance from joaquin, and anyone who praises it as the best thing of all time or labels it as the worst thing in cinema, are idiots. reject both extremes and enjoy the fucking movie. 1 star is just petty and embarrassing
anyone who praises it as the best thing of all time or labels it as the worst thing in cinema, are idiots. reject both extremes and enjoy the fucking movie. 1 star is just petty and embarrassing
Do you extend this generous view that “opinions must be firmly middle of the road” toward all movies or do you just expect others to be charitable with their opinions when it concerns a movie you liked?
Nah, I'm with them on this one. A one star review that consists of a single edgy one-liner is a waste of storage and bandwidth. It helps no one, it adds nothing.
Im with them on this. Ive seen people post one star reviews for perfectly competent movies, just to pull the average down on review aggregator sites. It is embarrassing
I don't understand how people can take an opinion and just make a grasping at straws style generalization guess about how the other person must feel.
Joker is just a standard Hollywood film. It's not like we're talking about Citizen Kane or Schindlers List here. Or, in the other direction, it's not The Room or Superhero Movie.
To try and take what they said and just wash it "you're argument is invalid because here's some words I'm putting in your mouth". This is just bad faith, smooth brained, or both.
This is some straw man bullshit right here.
It really was a shit movie.
I didn't enjoy it because it was just so damn depressing, but I can't say it was a bad movie. It did what it aspired to.
