Joker (Todd Phillips, October 4, 2019) Movie • Page 27

people love hearing that.

 

The first Hangover and Old School were funny. I was in elementary school the last time I saw Road Trip but I still remember it fondly. That said, I'm not even remotely shocked that Phillips is a shithead. the dude just comes off as sleazy. He's upset he can't easily shit out a comedy in the vein (but significantly worse) than his decades old work and he's lashing out instead of trying to be somewhat creative and evolve with the times within that genre.

I'm incredibly uneasy about all the press about how this movie will inspire violence, I REALLY hate putting any blame for modern gun violence in our society on a piece of art (video games, movies, fiction) when there is so clearly much bigger and more prevalent issues that are being ignored after every atrocity....but Todd Phillips just leaning into the edgelord shit doesn't fucking help me try to defend my stance.

 

Loved it when I was a senior in high school. It has not aged well. I still enjoy Old School though. Mostly for Will Ferrell.

 

The Hangover movies, including the first, do not hold up well at all. Like, not even just in a “this wouldn’t pass today” sense but just not being that funny in any sense

But also it’s hard to accuse them of “pandering to frat bros” since that type of humor *was* far more in the general mainstream at that time.

 

Tis is true, I remember people taking that whole Wolf Pack thing and running with it.

 

I never understood why people thought the Hangover movies were funny. Always thought it was so overhyped when I finally got around to renting it

 

Except for the piano song about Doug they don’t hold up lol road trip and old school are all timers. As much as I don’t agree with his values, I can see how one would argue comedy is harder now than ever before. What these comedians were raised on or the influences they revere would get absolutely lambasted in these modern landscapes. He’s a douche but I don’t think for his awareness of his surroundings.

 

I thought his early movies were entertaining enough but viewing his trajectory it’s become clear he wants to make fun of everyone except himself which is the least interesting career arc a filmmaker/“comedian” can take

 

Soooooo I wasn't a fan of this. This really, REALLY needed more honest treatment, or at least to be made by someone more capable than the School For Scoundrels dude. Joaquin is really good at least, but y'all expected that. Feel like they floundered Zazie tho unfortunately

 

So is it the hybrid of incel Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy like I picture it is?

 

It's like, if you're gonna touch on mental illness and what have you in a blockbuster film millions of people are gonna see, every detail needs to be present and account for. I'm pretty fearful of what the takeaways are gonna be for certain people

 

Dunno, I'm gonna have to think on that, but I worry if I do I'm gonna dislike this even further

 

There’s no way this movie doesn’t end up being just mostly boring and politically incoherent and most likely we’ll all forget about it in six months

 

Yeah, I’m still mulling this over and landing on hating it. I don’t expect a nuanced look at mental illness from a comic book movie, but this, I mean, goddamn if it doesn’t demonize every mentally ill person. It also has a weird sort-of commentary on a pseudo-antifa that I don’t think Todd Phillips is smart enough to have a stance on.

But overall, the whole thing is just misery porn. It’s borderline the “Hard to Watch: Based on the Book ‘Stone Cold Bummer’ by Manipulate” parody on “30 Rock” where it can’t create an interesting reason for why Fleck becomes The Joker besides mental illness + everybody either wants to shit on him or kick his ass for no reason.

Several things I liked were the cinematography, Joaquin, Deniro and a surprise appearance by Gary Gulman doing one of my all-time favorite bits.

Between this and “War Dogs,” it’s clear that Todd Phillips really wants to be Scorsese, but takes all the wrong lessons and ideas from his movies. He still has some comedy in here and it’s all at the expense of a little person, so he still can’t get a laugh without punching down.

 

There will definitely be big awards talk, if only for Phoenix.

 

Phoenix is actually doing interviews/press for once so I think he honestly stands a chance to win

 

It’s Phoenix’s race to lose IMO

 

Ok, but how does the movie end?

 

He has no good comedy ideas.

 

It has to be the height of privileged white male delusion for this dude to honestly think there’s anyone out there lamenting the fact that he feels like he can’t make The Hangover 4 because nobody will let him have characters that casually throw around the F word anymore

 

I feel sorry for him honestly, does he have somewhere I can donate