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No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies

E. Patrick Johnson

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Book

The follow-up to the groundbreaking Black Queer Studies, the edited collection No Tea, No Shade...

The Sexual Politics of Asylum

Calogero Giametta

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Book

Today within neoliberal democracies, gender and sexuality provisions give people the opportunity of...

Earn it: What to Do When Your Kid Needs an Entitlement Intervention

Michael G. Wetter

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Book

Does your family suffer from "affluenza" exhaustion? Are you confused by the "Me! ME! ME!!!"...

The Universe Has Your Back: How to Feel Safe and Trust Your Life No Matter What

Gabrielle Bernstein

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Book

'My commitment with this book is to wake up as many people as possible to their connection to faith...

Awix (3310 KP) rated Joker (2019) in Movies

Oct 4, 2019 (Updated Oct 4, 2019)

Joker (2019)

2019 | Crime, Drama

8.5

(147 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Striking riff on some elements of the Batman mythology looks good but simultaneously feels like it's trying to do too much and struggling to justify its own existence. In an early 80s Gotham City, severely troubled clown/comedian Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is struggling to maintain his grip on reality, not to mention his own sanity. But a powerful force of nihilistic chaos is incubating within him...

A very strong performance by Joaquin Phoenix is the main reason to see this film, as he manages to be pitiable, frightening, and occasionally very funny. The sustained grimness and intensity of it is also surprising and impressive. That said, it does take rather a long time for the traditional Joker characterisation to begin to appear, and the question of whether this character can actually support a whole movie has clearly troubled the film-makers, too - hence, presumably, the attempts to make points about anti-capitalism, social unrest, and the mass media. These don't chime especially well with the period setting, which is presumably to facilitate the homages to King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, French Connection and Network which the film is filled with. One inevitably wonders what the point of the Joker is without Batman, unless it's simply to shock and provoke. This film does those things, but only up to a point and to no very obvious end. A good-looking, well-made, well-played film, but perhaps just the tiniest bit portentous.