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Last movie watched...

Started by SmallBlueThing, 04 February, 2011, 12:40:44 PM

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Bad City Blue

JOKER. Quite prepared not to like this. I mean, it's arty, it's won awards, it's not really a Joker movie in the normal sense, it rips off Taxi Driver and king Of Comedy...

But wow. What an amazing, powerful film. Dark, distressing, sad, bleak... All those things yet riveting, much like the two films it owes so much to.

Phoenix is amazing, Oscar will beckon, but the film itself also deserves one. The perfect orchestral score helps, whilst the period music (aside from one horrendous misstep), sets the era well.

Go see it, it's stunning.

Holy Fleck, Batman.
Writer of SENTINEL, the best little indie out there

radiator

Quote(aside from one horrendous misstep)

I know what you mean, and I'm going to assume that it was an honest mistake on the part of the filmmakers...(?)

JOE SOAP

#13532
Quote from: radiator on 10 October, 2019, 12:27:20 AM
Quote(aside from one horrendous misstep)

I know what you mean, and I'm going to assume that it was an honest mistake on the part of the filmmakers...(?)

It seems more like another attempt at what's become a hallmark of the film and its marketing campaign: to generate a level of faux controversy to sell it as something it isn't i.e. 'dangerous'.

MacabreMagpie

#13533
I have some American friends who had no idea who sang the song or that there was any controversy around it (apparently it's played all the time at sporting events over there) but yeah I find it hard to believe it wasn't an informed decision by someone, somewhere down the line.

I saw it yesterday too and really enjoyed it, for the most part. Weirdly, I don't know if I'll watch it again or at least for a long time as it makes you feel a lot of things and not all of them are enjoyable.

I did like how it plays with what was or wasn't in Arthur's head throughout the movie. [spoiler]Such as how none of the interactions he had with his neighbour (besides the initial lift meeting and when he kills her) actually happened.[/spoiler]

One thing this *isn't*, though, is "incel the movie" as I've seen it referenced (presumably by people who haven't seen it), though I think it does give a voice to the kind of people who snap and then go into, say, a movie theatre with a gun without explicitly showing that as being a bad thing.... there's a definite point where I think you as the audience stop sympathising with him but the movie continues to act like you're supposed to and that made me uncomfortable.

But overall a very good movie and - unbelievably - I think this is the first role I've ever seen Phoenix in! He's definitely well-cast and this is an interpretation of Joker I'm interested in seeing (unlike Leto's).

wedgeski

Quote from: MacabreMagpie on 10 October, 2019, 08:16:58 AMBut overall a very good movie and - unbelievably - I think this is the first role I've ever seen Phoenix in! He's definitely well-cast and this is an interpretation of Joker I'm interested in seeing (unlike Leto's).
You haven't seen Gladiator??

CalHab

Quote from: wedgeski on 10 October, 2019, 09:09:11 AM
Quote from: MacabreMagpie on 10 October, 2019, 08:16:58 AMBut overall a very good movie and - unbelievably - I think this is the first role I've ever seen Phoenix in! He's definitely well-cast and this is an interpretation of Joker I'm interested in seeing (unlike Leto's).
You haven't seen Gladiator??
Or Walk the Line?

MacabreMagpie

No and no! I've never been much of a movie-watcher, outside of horror/sci-fi.

That'll change now though as we had a new Odeon Luxe open here and I decided to get a Limitless membership, since it costs less than two films per month and I can see as many as I want.

TordelBack

Quote from: MacabreMagpie on 10 October, 2019, 11:33:30 AM
No and no! I've never been much of a movie-watcher, outside of horror/sci-fi.

Signs? Space Camp? Parenthood? (The latter being Horror, obviously).

Frank

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 10 October, 2019, 06:54:32 AM
Quote from: radiator on 10 October, 2019, 12:27:20 AM
Quote(aside from one horrendous misstep)

I know what you mean, and I'm going to assume that it was an honest mistake on the part of the filmmakers...(?)

It seems more like another attempt at what's become a hallmark of the film and its marketing campaign: to generate a level of faux controversy to sell it as something it isn't i.e. 'dangerous'.

That seems to have been part of the US marketing. US podcasts are full of millennials describing the film as dangerous, disturbing and how it gave them nightmares. That's not part of the conversation about the film anywhere else.

As well as planting stories in the media about the possibility of Aurora-style shootings by Incels, US theatres employed security staff to stand guards in cinemas and displayed signs banning unaccompanied males from screenings.

It's the post-Blair Witch equivalent of the medical staff Hitchock employed to attend early showings of Psycho and the gimmicks of William Castle.



TordelBack

Quote from: Frank on 10 October, 2019, 04:22:24 PMUS theatres ... displayed signs banning unaccompanied males from screenings.

This was, I believe, revealed as a hoax by some attention-seeking scrote.  Which rather supports the rest of your post.

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: TordelBack on 10 October, 2019, 04:26:52 PM
Quote from: Frank on 10 October, 2019, 04:22:24 PMUS theatres ... displayed signs banning unaccompanied males from screenings.

This was, I believe, revealed as a hoax by some attention-seeking scrote.  Which rather supports the rest of your post.
YUP

Frank


I only heard about that two hours ago and it's been Snopesed already? I hate living in the future.

Nobody better mess with this enormous pile of paperwork I've stacked precipitously on the edge of my desk.



Tjm86

Quote from: CalHab on 10 October, 2019, 09:37:53 AM
Quote from: wedgeski on 10 October, 2019, 09:09:11 AM
Quote from: MacabreMagpie on 10 October, 2019, 08:16:58 AMBut overall a very good movie and - unbelievably - I think this is the first role I've ever seen Phoenix in! He's definitely well-cast and this is an interpretation of Joker I'm interested in seeing (unlike Leto's).
You haven't seen Gladiator??
Or Walk the Line?

Trying to remember the title of that black comedy he was in about US army in Germany, ah yes "Buffalo Soldiers." Now that was well worth a watch.

radiator

I have very fond memories of Buffalo Soldiers - want to watch it again soon to see if it holds up.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: Frank on 10 October, 2019, 04:22:24 PM
That seems to have been part of the US marketing. US podcasts are full of millennials describing the film as dangerous, disturbing and how it gave them nightmares. That's not part of the conversation about the film anywhere else.


The director built a career out of playing both ends against the middle. The whole film is designed around it.

https://www.themarysue.com/marc-maron-todd-phillips-woke-comedy/