Skip to main content

joker | 2019



Is Joaquin Phoenix's performance of the Joker worth an Oscar nomination? Yes. Ok, but, besides that, why is everybody so hyped by this film? Because we've seen a movie with plenty of superheroes hit the box office this year and now, six months later, just one man, a villain, is stealing the whole show. The one thing that hyped me the most was reading, when the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in September, that this movie didn't have special effects, that it was organic.  

I know, I'm not going to say anything you've already read on any film magazine or twitter, instagram or your friends may have commented but I needed to post this. 

Joker is a movie that is undoubtedly influenced by Scorsese's films, such as Taxi Driver (1976) and presents a Gotham that reminds us of the 1970's New York. One of the things I liked the most is the contextualisation of the action, because it helped to understand and empathize with Arthur Fleck, the Joker. The colour palette changed as the film was progressing and the character was "mutating" into that villain. 

Despite knowing that he is the villain of the comics and that the superhero in this stories is Batman, I think that the director, Todd Phillips, found a way to make people empathize with the Joker. But it wasn't a conventional way. The abuses of his childhood and the lies Arthur Fleck has been told his whole life, and the fact that he has a mental illness (or more) are just the way of reflecting the chaos of those that society considers that are a failure. The Joker is a product from the chaos, from the rationality inside the irrationality; he knows what he does, yet it is the only way he can see that life makes sense, because nobody cares about him and he sees how everyone  despises him. And that is what Joaquin Phoenix captures and transmits in his performance. 

There are many memorable scenes in the film, the bathroom scene is one of my favourites, but also the scene where he dances on the stairs of his apartment.

The only thing I missed in the film, though it is not necessarily needed because an image is worth a hundred words, is more dialogue and more talk from the Joker.

One of the movies of the year, for sure, that makes you think.



An alternative poster of the Joker. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

guardians of the galaxy | 2014

The James Gunn film is set in a galaxy where the heroes haven't got the superhero profile. Peter Quill is a bounty hunt er that was taken away from his planet, the Earth, when he was just a boy. From his planet he only has a walkman with a cassette that has multiple songs.  It is noteworthy to say that the nostalgic songs and the reference to the movie Footloose (1984) where Kevin Bacon becomes a hero changing a situation by dancing makes this film different.  As said at the beginning, the characters have all a different profile that you wouldn't identify with a hero. They are selfish, they only look for themselves... When Peter steals something capable of destroying the galaxy from Ronan - the tyrant of the film  - Gamora (Zoe Saldana) has the duty to bring it back to Ronan, but she's planning her betrayal. Besides that, the Groot and Rocket want to capture Peter to earn money. This persecution finishes when they all go to jail and have to ally in order to get ...
Post a Comment
Read more

girls | 2012 -

Lena Dunham's tv series Girls is widely known and has been critically acclaimed. It talks about girls, as the title says, but n ot in a typical way - like many tv series or movies that are just a collection of clichés. Showing part of her real life story, Dunham writes among with other people in some chapters about the life of four girls who have finished college, or are just going to, and that try to find their places in the world.  The protagonist, Hannah (Lena Dunham),  is a writer who either the "leader" of the group and the tv series. The good thing about this series is that in every single chapter there's time to laugh and be identified with the situations the girls live. You don't need to be their age to be identified, parents can see their daughters and sons here... and everybody can have fun while watching it because it is just a kind of an "animated with real people" book written by Hannah/Dunham that portrays some of the most common ...
Post a Comment
Read more

begin again | 2014

If you like music, you'll like this film because it is a story about love for music, there's also time for other love, yes, but the main purpose of the film is showing the love people have for music and how this thing can help you overcome things and change your live. I've heard some critics say that this movie "has a soundtrack for every love story" and "a movie for those who live life as if it was a playlist" and I also would define it like this. If you don't like music, or it is not one of your most loved interests, this film makes you appreciate it. The places where the music is made captivate the viewer and the songs make you spend some good time watching the movie.  As for the story itself, the base, I wouldn't define it as groundbreaking story because if it wasn't for the music component, it could have been entertaining - because it is not a film about how a music star is born- but it wouldn't have been that good. As said...
Post a Comment
Read more