It 2
Meh, but my kind of meh.
Yesterday 5/10
I liked it, but I felt dirty the whole movie because this dude was just stealing music. The end didn’t really make up for that, but the love story was OK. I may be in love with Lily James.
A Star is Born: 8/10. Pretty good, but awfully depressing.
Joker ★★★★☆
"I had a bad day..."
The Joker is haunting and heartbreaking movie with a beautiful score and striking cinematography. This is the story of Arthur Fleck, a down on his luck man who lives in a cramped apartment with his mother in 1981 Gotham City, set against the backdrop of an economic downturn and a city rotting from the inside out. Arthur tries to keep a positive attitude despite all of this, but as the movie progresses we see a man that we feel sorry for, root for, want to help, and ultimately are repulsed by.
The fulcrum of this movie lies squarely on Joaquin Phoenix's performance and he carries that weight with ease, peering through sunken eyes on his emaciated frame as he doesn't change throughout the film so much as he allows what is inside him to come out. He has a tourettes-like condition stemming from brain trauma that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times, and his social worker ordered journal he keeps is full of jokes, photos, and notes of how "normal" people interact with the world. His childlike optimism betrays what is just below the surface, and as the movie unfolds we realize we are seeing things from his perspective that aren't always as it seems.
No spoilers here, but this film is a great example of how you can take a genre film and make it a serious and engaging drama. Despite all the media-hype that this film glorifies violent uprisings, at its core it is the story of mental health and the forgotten members of society that fall through the cracks and wind up in a cycle that either destroys or consumes them. This is not an easy watch, and some of the more violent scenes are very visceral but never played for shock value. Even the moments of levity (the way Arthur screws up during a clown act at a children's hospital comes to mind) are played with a deadly seriousness that never betrays the tone of the movie.
Part Taxi Driver, part Shutter Island, this film borrows heavily from it's influences but packages itself in such a fresh way that you just accept what you are watching and let it tell you what it is. You won't leave the theater feeling like you want to take on the 1% in a violent uprising, but you will leave with a film that sticks with you long after its over. This movie kinda messed me up in the head in the best way.
Joker. 10/10
Best movie I've seen since Hell or High Water. Go watch this movie.
Abominable - 7/10
Solid Dreamworks production. Some legit laughs and feels. A fun 3D experience with the family. The movie is soft/thin somehow at points, hard to describe. Not fatal, just enough of those moments you say to yourself 'that's not working great / looks like this sequenced is a bit rushed developmentally / suspension of disbelief is hard to keep right here'.
John Wick 3
Badass/Badass
Bring on John Wick 4.
Joker -- Going to use Dread's 72 hour rule on this one.
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