Joker
Cast/Crew
Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix.......................Arthur Fleck/Joker
Robert De Niro............................Murray Franklin
Zazie Beetz....................................Sophie Dumond
Frances Conroy...................................Penny Fleck
Brett Cullen....................................Thomas Wayne
Shea Whigham..............................Detective Burke
Bill Camp....................................Detective Garrity
Glenn Fleshler............................................Randall
Leigh Gill.......................................................Gary
Josh Pais...........................................Hoyt Vaughn
Rocco Luna.....................................GiGi Dumond
Marc Maron.......................................Gene Ufland
Sondra James............................................Dr. Sally
Murphy Guyer..............................Barry O'Donnell
Dante Pereira-Olson...........................Bruce Wayne
Dante Pereira-Olson...........................Bruce Wayne
Douglas Hodge..........................Alfred Pennyworth
Carrie Louise Putrello......................Martha Wayne
and many many more:
Click Here for a Full list:
Crew:
Todd Phillips............Director/Writer/Producer
Scott Silver...........................................Writer
Richard Baratta................Executive Producer
Bruce Berman...................Executive Producer
Jason Cloth.................Co-Executive Producer
Bradley Cooper.................................Producer
Bradley Cooper.................................Producer
Joseph Garner..................Executive Producer
Aaron L. Gilbert...............Executive Producer
Walter Hamada................Executive Producer
Anjay Nagpal............Co-Executive Producer
Emma Tillinger Kostoff...................Producer
Michael E. Ulsan.............Executive Producer
David Webb................................Co-Producer
Hildur Guonadóttir........................Composer
Lawrence Sher...................Cinematographer
Jeff Groth............................................Editor
Shanya Markowitz..............Casting Director
Mark Friedberg.............Production Designer
Laura Ballinger..........................Art Director
Kris Moran.............................Set Decorator
Mark Bridges..................Costume Designer
and many more: (especially with makeup)
Click Here for a Full list:
Storyline
"Arthur Fleck is a wannabe stand-up comic who suffers from many mental illnesses, including one which causes him to laugh uncontrollably when he is nervous that often gets him into bad situations. Arthur's mental health causes almost all people in society to reject and look down upon him, even though all he wants is to be accepted by others. After being brutally beaten, having his medication cut off, Arthur's life begins to spiral downward out-of-control into delusions, violence and anarchy until he eventually transforms into Gotham's infamous Clown-Prince of Crime. "
"Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur wears two masks--the one he paints for his day job as a clown and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he's part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker. "
- IMDB (Jwelch5742) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ql_stry_2
Joker tells the horrifying cautionary tale about a mental ill man who is ignored by society and struggles to fit in with the crowd due to his very apparent differences from his illnesses including his laughing at inappropriate times such as when he is nervous. Attempting to be a stand-up comedian, he works as a clown and walks the streets of Gotham City being who he is which consequently leads him to being beaten and bullied, sparking that anger in him. As his life slowly unravels due to the mental illnesses and aggression he faces, society continues to ignore his cries for helps and worrying signals that begins his descent into madness. Once these feelings become transformed into violence and craziness, he rises as the terrible criminal we all know that will forever change the city and cause chaos or anarchy to disrupt the original way it was running. This disturbing and scary realistic story warns society about the dangers of ignorance towards some major problems and shows one mentally ill man descending into madness due to the crumbling world around him in what is the most impacting, shocking and overall horrific stories of the year.
Would I Recommend?
Joker is a hard film to describe and will differ depending on who watches it as it can be very upsetting and disturbing for some people but can also be insightful and entertaining for others. It's a subjective movie that can be taken in a variety of ways to people, but I definitely think it is an important film that just struggles to appeal to a broader audience due to its dwindling storyline that turn audiences away. Therefore, I would not recommend it to people who suffer from any sort of mental illness even the smallest as it can be very upsetting and the way our main character spirals out of control is disturbing to most people and can be upsetting to a point where even I was too shook by it. Also, I would not recommend it to people who have anxiety or anything where they hate stressful movies that rises with high stress because this movie might be intolerable for them due to how it is created. But, I would recommend it to most people who don't meet the criteria because it is an overall good film that shows the issues of society in a very powerful way that impacts people greatly mostly in a good way as it is eye-opening and a crucial film for this time to help prevent the situation that occurs in the move. However, be aware that it is not always entertaining and not a fun movie even a little bit but is more purposeful and informative, but again is still a fine cautionary tale.
*Joker was nominated for 11 Oscars including best picture and won best actor for Joaquin Phoenix and best score for Hildur Guonadóttir at the 2020 ceremony
Overall/Review
One of the darkest and most controversial films of the year, Joker centers on one man and his struggling relationship with society that elevates his mental state to insanity and even murder. I see this movie as a film some people will love and others won't hate but be in the middle. I'm more of in-between and believe that the storyline is weak although the message and legacy is controversial yet beautifully crafted. This is followed by top tier acting from Joaquin Phoenix who plays the Joker himself and conveys the craziness with every bit of personal connection and emotion he has that all combines into some of the best acting of the year, completely immersing and convincing the audience of how crazy yet justified the joker really is. My main complaints are with the storyline in general as the more I watched it, the more I realized that the plot is literally 2 hours of someone going crazy which although could have been written and directed creatively, I felt was the expected and very broad way to handle the storyline. Therefore, I thought that although the new spin on the joker was handled unexpectedly well, I felt that the lack of flexibility in the storyline really held the movie back and almost just didn't lead to anything really. However, the character development definitely represents superb writing as Arthur Fleek (soon to be the joker) goes from an outsider in society to full on crazy and murderous, which not only symbolized the trouble in society but showed the need for change, kindness and how we really create the bad people instead of them being born that way. This leads into my next controversial point that Joker pretty much is about a killer's background but using the DC Comics character and because of the old tradition joker from other movies, I really felt like a part of the comic books was finally filled with his background told but I also decided that my view of the Joker changed in a bittersweet way due to the connection to society now.
However, my favorite part of the movie is the ending where all the twisted ideas come together to show a completely chaotic city of anarchy that people themselves caused and really shows how destructive people can be in a more classical and haunting way. Joker stands apart from the DC Cinematic Universe for now so although many familiar characters show up in the movie, it doesn't look like any more movies will be made, but this was actually something that I enjoyed about Joker as it excellently leaves the ending to the audience's own creativity or ideas about what exactly will happen afterwards or what even happened in the movie. Without giving too many spoilers, the ending is completely up to the audience's interpretation (which was an excellent decision made by the director) over what is real and what's imaginary and how (or where) the character will continue after the movie, using their own imagination. Finally, Joker is a very solid, risky and unusual movie that for me was quite flawed in directing decisions and storyline ideas (dragging on without leading to anything), but conveys a much needed message supported by brilliant acting and writing or reflecting on society's horrors in only a way that one of DC Comics' most unique villains could be used to do, creating a beautifully crafted and artistic, flawed but powerful film.
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%
IMDB Score: 8.5/10
Rating: 83%
*Joker is available to watch on HBO On Demand, HBO Max, HBO Go and HBO Now and is rated R
Comments
Post a Comment