Joker

I am not much for comic-book movies, and I don't like the constant deluge of sequels and reboots and so on. I loved Heath Ledger's Joker. I was not down for Joaquin Phoenix's Joker.

I am now down.

 

Is he still here? JFC.

 

Looks like a reboot of King of Comedy.

 

I believe it's meant to be an "homage." At least for a while Scorsese was attached as a producer.

 

Is DeNiro in hawk to someone?

 

Hock.

 

Him too.

 

That looks fucking great. And I am not a big comic book guy. Creepy with a capital C.

 

Agreed.

 

I'm not sure DeNiro has turned down a role -- any role -- in the last 15 years.

 

I'm guessing DeNiro appearance is nod to Taxi Driver, from which this movie clearly desires to crib, for at least a little while.

Todd Phillips is an interesting choice to write and direct. Knows oddballs - he was the Taxicab Confessions guy back in the day - so I'd expect a character study.

Ledger's Joker is great, but what makes it even better is that it's the one odd performance in otherwise what amounts to a giant action movie full of serious, stuffy characters. Joker wasn't merely repulsive to the heroes - but the other villains. The practical upshot of that? The audience loved him. He was attached to nothing and no one, and there remains an appeal in that.

 

It doesn't even look like a "traditional" comic book movie. Rename it "Creepy Clown" and there isn't much to suggest that it is even about The Joker, apart from that quick scene with the laugh. But that is absolutely the right approach after 20+ MCU movies and the failures of previous DC movies. There's a lot of white noise and this certainly cuts through it.