Will I get around to it someday? Maybe.
And I know it will make a shit ton of money this weekend. But here’s what’s holding me back:
It’s yet another comic book movie.
If I’m going to see a Batman movie I at least want to see Batman.
I understand it’s a celebration of guns.
There are deep concerns that some fucking idiot might want to shoot up a theatre that’s showing it, a la the 2012 Aurora massacre when THE DARK KNIGHT RISES premiered.
After that point, no other justifications are necessary but…
The movie got a wretched review in the NEW YORK TIMES.
The movie won the Venice Film Festival. That’s always a warning sign.
I’m not in the mood for a dark cynical empty heartless movie right now.
I don’t give a shit why some outcast becomes a serial killer. I just want to take his guns away.
And finally, the real Joker is in the White House. Why pay good money to see a pale imitation?
Will you see The Irishman?
ReplyDeleteIf someone would care to explain the "Venice Film Festival" comment, I'd be much obliged.
ReplyDeletewg
Dark Knight Rises - 2012, not Dark Knight.
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure: I basically swore off comic book movies when they turned grim - which led to comic books themselves becoming even grimmer (co-dependency).
ReplyDeleteLast movie I paid to see was Tarantino's Manson Massacre With A Happy (Sort Of) Ending, which won a decision over my aging bladder (and that's another story …).
By the bye, a correction:
That's not The Joker who's currently in the White House.
It's The Penguin.
Just one look …
Wendy,
ReplyDeleteVenice Film Festival = Pretentious
My thoughts exactly Ken. I remember the days when you went to a theater to see a film and be entertained. Somehow that definition has changed radically today. In our current political climate, do we really need a film about a sick killer? During the Depression, when people and companies went bankrupt, Hollywood made musicals, they made comedies to LIFT people's spirits. Are we so bankrupt of ideas today that this is all we can turn out? Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteThat movie looks awful. But I found this today. This guy is scarier than any modern day Joker.
ReplyDeleteConrad Veidt, the original inspiration for the Joker, from the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs
https://i.redd.it/gwvx8hm3ckq31.jpg
"And finally, the real Joker is in the White House."
ReplyDeleteTalking of Washington, I'm currently working my way through The Powers That Be, the wonderful but short lived sitcom from the 90s about a political family. David Hyde Pierce is glorious as the suicidal son in law. But my favourite has to be Valerie Mahaffey as his eccentric wife. Just the way she pronounces the word "Mummy" with a slight British inflection, as opposed to the traditional American "Mommy", cracks me up.
Opposed to guns? The solution is a poison-gas bomb or similar device. That way one can kill dozens of people without firing a single shot. Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
Mike, I always love your comments. We definitely have the same point of view.
DeleteThe man who made 3rd rate crap movies like "The Hangover" has made this pretentious crap.
ReplyDeleteYep, I will pass too.
And what is this nonsense with the producing credits for Bradley Cooper? These producer credits are a joke.
I remember your old post when you slammed these titles for every guy who took a meeting for a movie.
This looks similar to the ones Michael Douglas got for 'One Flew.....'
In case this wins awards, just to tag along and pose for pics.
Has any of the readers seen the movie?
How is Joaquin Phoenix's performance? Will he win the Oscar?
I like Joaquin Phoenix but sadly his recent interviews are sort of smug, as if he has already won.
I saw this book at the library. Do you know about it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NNV7GGK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
ReplyDeleteI happened to write a friend of mine this morning that I probably wasn't going to see 'Joker' because I'm sick of violent movies all together. But I also wrote that, in the trailers for the film, I find every facially expression and movement Joaquin Phoenix makes absolutely compelling. Looks like an amazing performance. So I may succumb down the line and wind up watching it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Michael Moore wrote a thoughtful essay praising JOKER. Worth reading. It's on Facebook but it's permissions are public, you should be able to read it even if you don't have a Facebook account,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/mmflint/posts/10156278766436857
Ken –
ReplyDeleteProbably the mixture of The King of Comedy Redux and social commentary is why people are curious to get your opinion on “Joker”. It carries along in an obvious need to speak to our times and that, along with Phoenix’s performance, will bring the Oscar love next year.
I would rather hear your thoughts on “Dolemite is My Name” – Eddie Murphy’s valentine to filmmaker Rudy Ray Moore. I suspect the real entertainment will be found there.
When a director commissions a poster by John Wayne Gacy for his first feature, I take that as a sign to stay away from whatever he does from then on.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEd Pepper- “When a director commissions a poster by John Wayne Gacy for his first feature, I take that as a sign to stay away from whatever he does from then on.”
What Mr Pepper failed to mention is, this first feature is a documentary tribute to a neglected crooner performing in the tradition of Rudy Vallee Perry Como and Jerry Vale. If I read the articles - linked below- correctly.
https://www.bkmag.com/2014/06/27/how-john-wayne-gacy-and-gg-allin-launched-hangover-director-todd-phillips-career/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GG_Allin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated:_GG_Allin_and_the_Murder_Junkies
I haven't seen the film, so I can't comment (I'm seeing it later today), but you do know that you sound exactly like the people you rail against who won't watch multi-camera sitcoms, don't you? Or people who won't watch black and white movies. You've repeatedly betrayed a bias against super-hero movies and a specific bias against serious, "realistic" super-hero movies (particularly those from DC). Which you're entitled to. Everyone has their preferences. But when that bias gets in the way of you experiencing new things or giving things a chance, it really damages the credibility of your point (and damages your credibility when, again, you rail against people who refuse to give multi-camera sitcoms a chance).
ReplyDeleteThese movies are so pathetic.
ReplyDeleteSome director who wants the world to praise him as a genius, even though he sucks and an actor desperate, very desperate...... to win an Oscar.
We are tortured by these kind of movies or the money grabbing comic book movies.
The one by Heath was horrible too, but he died so he became a saint and Hollywood duly kissed his saint ass. Some saint who ODed snorting drugs off Olsen twins asses.
Jack Nicholson's Joker was bad too. I blame the lame character, rather than Jack.
The Bane version done by Tom Hardy was the only passable villain of Batman movies.
You read New York Times !!!
ReplyDeleteAnd take their word for seeing a movie???
"I understand it’s a celebration of guns."
No 'The Irishman' review then.
Not even for cute little Joe Pesci who came out of retirement?
Or Bobby who looks like he will slip into senility any day now.
Better watch this one before he does.
Deniro is infinitely sharper and smarter than the guy who said the revolutionary army took over the airports in 1775 and asked his aides about buying Greenland.
DeleteDaniel: "you do know that you sound exactly like the people you rail against who won't watch multi-camera sitcoms, don't you? Or people who won't watch black and white movies."
ReplyDeleteFalse analogy. Ken isn't shallowly dismissing this film for its technical aspects, but for its content, its point of view, which can be discerned from the trailers and interviews.
I totally agree with you Ken. We have enough headache than watch the origin of some sicko.
ReplyDeleteCould you please give your take on this new discrimination case against Robert De Niro.
Every Hollywood legend seems to be in some sort of mess.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/03/robert-de-niro-sued-for-gender-discrimination-by-former-assistant.html
Will we ever see Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey back on screen?
Anti Semite Mel Gibson, Racist Creeps like Quentin Tarantino (who also is a supporter of convicted rapist Polanski) get to do movies but why not Hoffman?
Ken, I agree about the movie. But Trump is more a human toilet seat I think.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAs a comedy writer, have you ever written any episodes for a clown character or just any writing for any clown?
ReplyDeleteOr do you just hate clowns like many others do?
I always think that the part of Joker is miscast with serious actors.
ReplyDeleteGet someone funny to do it.
Like Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Zach Galifianakis, The Rock, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Steve Carell.
With all this awards and shit, they are ruining it.
You can bet that Daniel Day Lewis has already gone into Joker mode and will get his Hollywood buddies to make another Joker movie, so he can win another Oscar.
Craig: I saw the film after I posted my comment. It's an unambiguously great film. Like, not just best of the year, but one of the best of the decade. This isn't a "comic book" film. It's a stark, realistic portrait of a person's decline into mental illness and a society (through its policies) that perpetuates it happening. There's no "scheme" or grand villain plan in the story. There's no sudden "snap" event (like Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man or Jack Nicholson in Batman '89) where Phoenix suddenly loses it and becomes a scenery-chewing-level villain. It's a measured, subtle, layered story that is unsparingly sophisticated. And it's most decidedly NOT a pro-incel story. If you come away thinking that it is then you're taking away the exact wrong message of the film and that's on you, not the filmmakers.
ReplyDeleteLike the people on this thread, you can judge the film without having seen it and be smugly content in your willful ignorance of what the actual film is about, or you can see it and engage with it as a legitimate work of art and base your opinion of it on what's actually on screen (as opposed to your own biased imaginings of what you think it is).
Daniel , well said
ReplyDeleteI liked it better the first time, when it was called "Taxi Driver".
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of clowns best clown episode I ever saw was "Chuckles Bites the Dust" on Mary Tyler Moore show.
ReplyDeleteMost under rated "clown" movie imho was "Death to Smoochy"
I fear, considering contemporaneous reviews, I will get very few to agree with the second opinion.
I saw it yesterday. It's pretty much just "Taxi Driver" for Dummies: a lame attempt at recreating the gritty '70s New York cinema of directors like Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet, but without any insight into actual human psycholgy or behavior. I found Joaquin Phoenix tiresome and one-dimensional as well, though he was still better than Jared Leto in "Suicide Squad" (which admittedly isn't saying much).
ReplyDeleteAlso, to the people replying to Ken's comment about "Joker" being a celebration of guns with comments like "Gee, I guess you're not gonna see 'The Irishman' then", let me just say that Scorsese's films are NOT "celebrations of guns", and they never have been. I think Scorsese is one of the few current filmmskers who actually does take violence seriously and I've never felt that he uses it gratuitously or just to get a rise out of the audience. I saw the trailer for "The Irishman" and it looks like a mature, thoughtful work from one of one our greatest directors and hardly a "celebration of guns" as some claim. Reducing films like "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas" to a cheap generalization like that is ignorant and displays an intentional misreading of a great director's works.
Daniel:
ReplyDeleteEverybody is entitled to decline attending a movie they don't want to see, for whatever reason, even if fanatics fly off the handle about it. The movie is doing well enough without me; they don't need my money. Please spare me your fanboy rage disguised as Artistic Snobbery.
@MIkeDoran I know what you mean. Nolan is partially responsible for that. DC just made everything dour in its wake (including Superman... WTF?!). Still, you should just Marvel movies. They actually do them right! They have never fallen into the dour misery trap that DC has (their TV shows, on the other hand...). So yeah, you've got something like 25 Marvel movies if you ever DO feel like watching something that isn't bleak and filled with despair.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, JOKER is indeed bleak and filled with despair. If you don't fancy that, I don't blame you, but it IS very good. I do wonder about the social responsibility aspect, but I honestly hope it will act more like a pressure release. The film really does pull no punches. All those angry basement-dwellers who felt The Last Jedi was too PC are going to LOVE it. I honestly hope it makes them feel listened to.