I saw it last night. Joaquin was amazing as Joker. It reminds me of Taxi Driver a lot, but more brutal. Great film!
I just talked to my wife. She loved it, but said it is incredibly dark and heavy. She wants to see it again, but will have to wait a few days before seeing it again (and this is the woman who sat through all 9 hours of Shoah in a single day.)
This guy was right. I should have listened to him. More so, I should have taken the $50+ I spent on 3 tickets and donated it to a charity. In fact, I am going to find a charity for the holidays and make sure this is my *minimum* donation. Oh yeah, @ Todd Phillips, you owe me fifty bucks. Plus fees.
saw it tonight... wow.. mesmerizing i don't know what's more shocking.. the movie, or the fact that it exists in our PC 2019 culture. very gutsy to put this out.
It's a spectacular film, you and your wife definitely should see it again, sir! I was wondering.. Wow, I think this is what people feel when they saw Taxi Driver in 1976!
I haven't seen it. I'm in Kansas City at the moment, while she is home in Chicago. She has memberships in both AMC A*List and Regal's Unlimited and her original plan was to see it in IMAX at Navy Pier, and then to see it a second time at the Regal City North 14. The film was so heavy that she changed her mind, and is seeing a Chinese film as her second of the evening.
Well, just got out and I have to say, it’s quite a damn good movie, but Jesus, it’s almost unrelentingly dark and heavy. Todd Phillips made a rather good scummy recreation of 80’s New York (though it’s supposed to be Gotham). The movie has obvious nods to Scorcese and Taxi Driver and The King Of Comedy, but also 21st century films like Drive. Spoiler There’s a rather bold tweaking to the Bat-mythos and I wonder if it will be followed up on or if this is just a one-off film as I’ve heard—also this is the upteenth onscreen murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents Phoenix is amazing in the role (and has to carry the film, appearing in probably every scene) but the other characters aren’t delved into very much and don’t have a lot to do. Not sure this movie needed to be made but I did enjoy it, and it has moments of cruel beauty. 8/10
Just got back from it really enjoyed it. Cross between Taxi Driver and the King Of Comedy. No super hero anything for those hate that sort of stuff. Stark portrayal of class struggle and intense mental illness.
My wife is bizarrely complicated, and I actually live in two cities, with apartments in both Chicago and Kansas City Missouri.
Didn't read through this thread but if it's been mentioned already it bares repeating anyway in that I just learned what an "incel" is from all the local news broadcast stations being told by law enforcement to be on the look out for another possible mass shooting in the theater by this hate group spurred on by the Joker movie. They're warning folks to develop a theater exit plan if something like this goes down. I KID YOU NOT! WOW! Now that's how to market a movie! Get law enforcement involved! Heads up on a tip... Don't sit in the middle row theater seats. That's the first place active shooters aim for. Now I REALLY have to go see this movie. Got my body armor all ready to go. Here's what an "Incel" is... What Are Incels? - Involuntary Celibates Believe Women Owe Them Sex
Sooooo.....is the next step to integrate the Phoenix version of Joker into an actual Batman movie? Not having seen Joker yet...what would a Batman version movie do?.....tone Phoenix down? Make for an edgier Batman plot interaction? Create an energy that is the logical forward motion from what Ledger began? Or perhaps, it's an impossible jump?
Haven't seen it yet but from what I saw from Phoenix's Kimmel interview yesterday, I'm getting a very strong vibe that this isn't a comic book movie.
Too soon to tell since most here haven't seen it, yet. And really it's almost impossible to speculate without "Spoilers" ruining it for the rest.
Just saw a late evening screening at the AMC. It should go without saying, given that it is Rated 'R' but this is not a "comic book" movie; it's a movie by and for adults only. I'm not sure I've seen a more skillfully made (and acted!) mainstream film in at least 4-5 years than JOKER. Granted, I don't go to the cinema nearly as much as I once did but I go enough to know a gem when I see it. Hollywood simply does not make films like this anymore. It is not perfect, but so few films are. Without getting too deeply into the weeds, I think Todd Phillips wants us to both empathize with and recoil from Arthur; often at the same time. Not unlike another anti-hero such us say, Tony Soprano, do we both revel in the violence he inflicts and at the same time find ourselves as passive bystanders, unable to do a thing about it. What is JOKER ultimately trying to say? Is it about the eternal question of nature vs. nurture? Is it about a society than can step over the downtrodden or simply not even hold a door for someone but happily fill their lives with the utter meaninglessness that our mass-media culture vomits in our face 24/7? Or is it simply an interesting character study, a twist on the standard comic book narrative? I think maybe it's a little of all of these things. But what's most impressive about this film is that it doesn't tell you how to process what you've just seen. There's no epilogue that instructs you how to compartmentalize your feelings post viewing. And that... is perhaps its strongest attribute. JOKER is a very, very great film. Spoiler: Related Thoughts/Not Spoilers I keep thinking of another film I saw just about 20 years ago at another AMC theater, shortly after moving to Columbus, Ohio. It was by one of my favorite filmmakers; certainly one of his generation's best: David Fincher. The film in question was FIGHT CLUB. I thought about my reaction to that film and how I viewed it at the time. Having not read Chuck Palahniuk's book I can only speak for the screen interpretation. That film so put me off in its' 3rd act with it's almost callous nihilism that left me ice cold. It was almost saying, "oh well, f**k it, let's just blow it up". It so desperately wanted to be profound in its statement that somehow capitalism and masculinity, or the lusting for some ideal of true masculinity was the underpinning of everything that is wrong with the world. Going into JOKER I was concerned that, based on some of the descriptions of the plot and what I could gather from press junkets, etc, that I was in for that early adolescent profundity all over again. JOKER is NOT a nihilistic tone poem. If I had to categorize FIGHT CLUB – that's how I would categorize it. No matter how skillful it was, the seediness of its message completely frosted me. JOKER is instead a question not a declarative statement. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. If you enjoy FIGHT CLUB, my sympathies.
