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Joker (2019) - Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz


AlbertV

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On 9/23/2018 at 8:03 PM, ShaOW!linDude said:

Shades of Cesar Romero...and not in a good way.

Dont insult Cesar , he is the original and deserves respect.....Its also false that he couldnt be evil on the show : when Susie died he was like "oh well , just have to get new moll, no biggie" or when he was gonna behead B & R on live TV

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ShaOW!linDude
On 9/1/2019 at 11:10 PM, Coliseum1972 said:

Dont insult Cesar , he is the original and deserves respect.....

That's not a dig at Cesar. The insult is directed at the film, the trailer for which does not impress me as a good rendition of the character, as is Cesar's.

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I have faith in Jaoquin Pheonix to make this at least watchable, still seen very little of the actual film. He's a great actor, and while I coudnt see him as playing the Joker character. I want his performance to prove me wrong.

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I think this looks fantastic but, in my head, I've very much removed it from the Batman universe. It's obvious this is not going to rely on tradition when it comes to the character. It looks far more like a psychological thriller (psychological crime thriller?) than anything else. I'm awfully excited for it.

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On 9/3/2019 at 8:54 PM, ShaOW!linDude said:

That's not a dig at Cesar. The insult is directed at the film, the trailer for which does not impress me as a good rendition of the character, as is Cesar's.

I was partly kidding (but not about Cesar though) ;)

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Secret Executioner
On 9/3/2019 at 11:21 PM, Drunken Monk said:

It's obvious this is not going to rely on tradition when it comes to the character. It looks far more like a psychological thriller (psychological crime thriller?) than anything else.

My thoughts.

There was a trailer during the It marathon I went to a few days ago, and it really does not come across as a comic book movie but more as some thriller. I can see some elements slightly linked to some incarnations - the guy has had a gazillion backstories over time - like the character being a failed comedian (from what I could gather) or stuff about wanting to make people laugh, and there was a brief glimpse at him in the trademark purple suit (looked pretty neat), but otherwise it seemed more like it was about a guy in clown make-up getting abused by everyone around him. 

 

Concerning the @ShaOW!linDude:@Coliseum1972 debate on Cesar Romero's take... Cesar Romero is among my favorite Jokers, I find he mixes the lightness of the times' comics - remember the comics themselves were highly goofy in the Silver Age and the show was supposed to be a serious rendition - with the darker, if not violent side of the character very well. His schemes to kill Batman and Robin were pretty grim yet you couldn't at least crack a smile seeing him burst into laughter or do some crazy stuff (or maybe I had seen much more violent and threatening incarnations of the character so this guy seemed rather goofy compared to the portrayals from the 1990s cartoon or from later live-action films ?). Any way, I still love the show and its incarnation of the Joker is one of my favorite, just as I loved their Catwoman (Julie Newmar was perfect), Riddler (Frank Gorshin is the best Riddler IMO) or Mad Hatter (who was played bya an actor named Wayne... Holy missed opportunity, Batman !).

 

Anyway, I'm kinda glad it exists if it serves as one of the DCEU reboots. Better Phoenix than Leto, Leto looked like a deranged-looking rockstar cosplaying as the character and it's only one of the countless things wrong with Suicide Squad.

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I wonder if D.C will go the same route with some of their other character's?, if movie is a popular with fans as it critic's.

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Watched this last night. It's really not what I was expecting. I was expecting dark, but it this was very dark character study of a person who's disturbed trying to make sense of a chaotic society that doesn't care about him or anybody like him. The film is set in the early 1980s against the backdrop--implied, but not explicitly stated--of a not-so-glorious period when the government was shutting down mental hospitals and leaving its inmates to fend for themselves on the streets. It's only appropriate that the film came out this year, 30 years after the Tim Burton BATMAN and at the tail-end of decade that has put 80s pop culture on a pedestal, and then goes and gives that decade the middle finger. Even Thomas Wayne who claims that he wants to help the downtrodden, really looks upon them with disdain. Joaquim Phoenix gives a bravura performance as a man who finally snaps. But man, every time you think that a certain negative event will be final straw, something else happens that makes his world fall apart EVEN MORE.  And the violence only happens sporadically, but it is VERY hard hitting when it finally comes. Don't go in expecting an MCU film, or even THE DARK KNIGHT. It's really it's own thing.

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Also saw this today

Joker (USA, 2019) [DCP] – 3/5

 

Scorsese by Phillips, for super hero audiences. Socially relevant, but too slick to have grit, too superficial to be genuinely challenging.

Edited by Takuma
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Hm. Just seen this and... very mixed feelings. I certainly don't think it's a great film by any stretch of the imagination. Bravura performance by Phoenix I have to say, but then he is always worth watching. I think the problem lies with the fact that as soon as you give The Joker a tragic backstory, he doesn't work. The reason Heath Ledger is so scary is the unpredictability, the unknowable qualities, the conflicting stories of how he got the scars. Whereas this is just.... it doesn't need to exist. Of course the same could be argued of any film, but I don't see this leading to a big franchise or anything like that. The Wayne family felt crowbarred in (I also don;t get the timeline given Bruce's age in this and that there must be at least twenty years until he faces off against what would then be quite an old Joker!). I will say that the final third contains some great moments where The Joker as the orchestrator of chaos finally emerges but otherwise, quite an unpleasant film that isn't entertaining enough or really as psychologically deep as it thinks it is.

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13 minutes ago, SamSeed said:

 isn't... as psychologically deep as it thinks it is.

Agreed. I think it’s interesting as a mirror of its time, Joker being very much the archetype of an incel school shooter, but I don’t think the film is all that deep. The story and the character downfall is extremely derivative, cinematically calculated and superficial. I keep thinking about the film, but not its contents, but the social relevance of it as a product.

That being said, I think Joker is the most watchable thing Hollywood's super hero trend has produced since Nolan's Batman films... So that's certainly something!

Edited by Takuma
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1 hour ago, SamSeed said:

The Wayne family felt crowbarred in (I also don;t get the timeline given Bruce's age in this and that there must be at least twenty years until he faces off against what would then be quite an old Joker!)

I thought about the old Joker thing to, but then I just brushed it off as the film isn't really meant to be lead into another Batman film (at least not initially), so it's its own thing.

I know there were some people who accused The Dark Knight Rises of being a right-wing propaganda film--those dastardly Occupy Wall Street People can't be trusted!--so I think the inclusion of Thomas Wayne as a rich douchebag balances out the masses resorting to violence; neither side ends up being a paragon of virtue.

Edited by DrNgor
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Secret Executioner
2 hours ago, SamSeed said:

(I also don;t get the timeline given Bruce's age in this and that there must be at least twenty years until he faces off against what would then be quite an old Joker!).

That's one element that has been bugging me since I heard of this. As something similar to an origin, it feels like old Joker is coming up at a fairly old age. Didn't even think of whether Batman would be around or not at the time this happened.

 

2 hours ago, DrNgor said:

I know there were some people who accused The Dark Knight Rises of being a right-wing propaganda film--those dastardly Occupy Wall Street People can't be trusted!--so I think the inclusion of Thomas Wayne as a rich douchebag balances out the masses resorting to violence; neither side ends up being a paragon of virtue.

I remember that controversy - I felt like some of Bane's speeches had far left overtones (we just had a presidential election over here in France and one of his speeches reminded me of one of the runners because that kind of was what he'd have said in a meeting), but I didn't feel like the movie was attacking a movement in particular. Nor that it was being favorable to right-winged or conservative people. 

Concerning the possible overtones of the 2019 Joker movie, I read the director (who initially is more of a comedy director) wanted to make an irreverent movie and was sick of the fact you pretty much can't make fun of anything without being attacked - for racism, sexism, antisemitism... -, something made even worse with social networks and people being able to attack you directly. From the couple of trailers/teasers I've seen, that is kind of well shown in the movie as the guy gets insulted and beaten up by people for merely laughing. The trailer I first saw at the theater didn't grab me, but a teaser that I saw on Youtube raised my interest - it's already unusual I don't skip a YouTube ad, but that I liked it is even more unusual.

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I'll eluicidate.

I was hugely excited for this but, for me, it did not deliver, beyond a very good central performance and the occasional bit of bleak humour.

Felt very much like a patchwork assembly of parts from other, better films (the 70s WB logo was a giveaway, I guess).

Kudos to DC for letting it get it made and I hope it's success leads to more of these off-centre comic book films getting made but I really did not like it at all.

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OpiumKungFuCracker
On 10/4/2019 at 7:40 AM, DrNgor said:

Watched this last night. It's really not what I was expecting. I was expecting dark, but it this was very dark character study of a person who's disturbed trying to make sense of a chaotic society that doesn't care about him or anybody like him. The film is set in the early 1980s against the backdrop--implied, but not explicitly stated--of a not-so-glorious period when the government was shutting down mental hospitals and leaving its inmates to fend for themselves on the streets. It's only appropriate that the film came out this year, 30 years after the Tim Burton BATMAN and at the tail-end of decade that has put 80s pop culture on a pedestal, and then goes and gives that decade the middle finger. Even Thomas Wayne who claims that he wants to help the downtrodden, really looks upon them with disdain. Joaquim Phoenix gives a bravura performance as a man who finally snaps. But man, every time you think that a certain negative event will be final straw, something else happens that makes his world fall apart EVEN MORE.  And the violence only happens sporadically, but it is VERY hard hitting when it finally comes. Don't go in expecting an MCU film, or even THE DARK KNIGHT. It's really it's own thing.

I will check this out. i was never into mcu, although i did enjoy guardian of the galaxy. I like character study films. I love a good ass performance. 

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Best movie I've watched in a long time. Captivated me from the first minute. Joaquin Phoenix performance is incredible and haunting in every scene he's in. I just think it's important to go into this movie with the right mind set. It's NOT a supervillain or comic movie like the countless marvel and dc adaptions being thrown at us. It's really a character study or character drama, about a guy who's getting stepped on one too many times by society and finally snaps. Everything in this movie works, the soundtrack, the performances, the cinematography... And it will make you question your own behaviour.

Is it ok to symphatize with a potential mass murderer, how much does society do or doesn't to prevent this, how selfish are we these days, should we be more compassionate... It will trigger a lot of things or at least it did in me. And that's what I love when a movie can achieve such a deep level of emotion. Movie of the Year IMHO!

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Best way to describe this movie: Taxi Driver x The King of Comedy x DC Comics.

Loved everything, especially Phoenix's performance. He's now top 3 Joker actors if all time imo, along with Ledger and Nicholson.

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