That's funny about Basketball Diaries, it was actually the film version of the autobiography of Jim Carroll, who wrote an early 80 musical classic: My recollection of that film is there wasnt that much violence - the first half was mostly about getting high on heroin and the second half was mostly about running out of money for buying heroin in going through withdrawl - a lot like Trainspotting. I seem to remember them robbing several people for drug money, but the violence seemed to mostly have purpose.
Noticed this was on HBO Go tonight so watched it. Without Batman as a foil I found it fairly depressing.
i finally watched joker last night and i was totally blown away. i dont watch super-hero movies at all. i saw the christopher nolan batman trilogy and the hulk with ed norton. thats literally the only superhero movies ive seen from the 21st century. this was more like a scorsese movie in look and feel and the fact that its still sitting with me pretty heavily the next day. right now id have to say its in my top five best of the 21st century and phoenix gave one of the best performances ive ever seen. the settings/scenes were bleak as hell...they really conveyed a side of life in america that many of us are not privy to...people living in squalor, mental illness, failures in the system, society's role in taking care of the mentally ill, consequences of growing wealth inequality, the "have-nots" feelings of resentment and of being left behind. in a way, it was a cautionary tale about societies failures and how easily it can all break down...watching this movie in the days after the trump insurrection definitely added to that sentiment! so much dancing, but it never felt gratuitous. all those scenes seemed necessary to the movie and the development of the character. and they looked and sounded AMAZING...and phoenix nailed every single movement in those scenes. its like when a musician takes a solo and every note is perfect and right where it should be. one thing i noticed is how thomas wayne was portrayed in this movie vs. the previous batman movies. in joker he is this very gruff, dick-ish business mogul who doesnt seem to care about the poor of gotham (as mayor he cuts funding to social services, ect) where in the previous movies he is a doctor and philanthropist who did care about the poor and funded many projects that helped them. so theres the scene where hes looking through his now-dead mothers belongings and he finds the photo with a note on the back saying "i love your smile...T.W."...implication is that there was something going on b/t his mom and thomas wayne...maybe arthur realized then that his mom was telling the truth all along and he was wrong to murder her. so thats when he changed his mind from live tv suicide to live tv murder? because up that point he was really hinting that he was going to kill himself.
Personally I didn't think it was that great. No real premise at all, just a front seat view of the mental free fall. The movie feels like it is trying too hard yet it doesn't really accomplish anything. Will there be sequels to this? That could change my mind. As a stand alone it's useless. Sorry for taking a cocaine, diarrhea **** in the punch bowl. I just wasn't overly impressed. Maybe I need to watch again.
Joker was one of those movies that I could objectively say was an incredible film. Amazingly well acted, directed, and put together. But it was so dark and depressing I really have no inclination to watch again. But I'm glad I saw it the first time.
i will definitely watch again, but i get why some are saying they wouldnt do a second viewing. i got a few movies like that...requiem for a dream and schindlers list off the top of my head.
I didn't think it was the worst movie ever. I just didn't like it that much. It's been awhile since I've seen it... If I remember correctly it was an extremely slow burn, and it was incredibly predictable. Yes we get it he's gonna lose it and stab that TV host. I also don't care for Joaquin Phoenix all that much. While different movies with different storylines, if we are keeping on The Joker theme, Dark Knight was a vastly superior movie imo. If you loved it you aren't alone for sure. It was widely lauded.
It's definitely not a movie for fans of Micheal Bay style films, the lack of explosions would be seen as a major shortcoming by that crowd.
