Joker (Todd Phillips, October 4, 2019) Movie • Page 60

I mean everyone who liked or disliked the movie did the same thing: came into this thread after seeing it and said how they felt about it. I haven’t shit on anyone for liking it and wouldn’t do that, but when people assign motives to those who don’t like it, that’s what I’ll make fun of.

also the last time someone quoted me and asked me to further explain why I didn’t think it was good, I did so, and they didn’t respond. Discussion!

 

The general vibe in this thread is people who didn’t like it trying to low key shit on people who did or dunking on them acting like they’re way better for not liking it. Not saying you in particular. There’s been a good number of users who didn’t like it who aren’t acting like assholes but such is the way of this website in general.

 

For myself, when I repeatedly open this thread and see “people who don’t like this movie went in wanting to hate it” or “this community rallies around hot takes and pretends it’s the truth” or something like that, yeah I do feel like responding flatly with a “the movie stinks” take just because why would I let silly statements like that go uncontested?

 

There's nothing wrong with criticizing a movie but it's the way you do it. Some of the criticisms in this thread were written like they are fact.

I personally found the message in this movie and agreed with it.

 

I've seen some borderline antagonistic responses, but I think saying "Just comment what you thought and if you didn't like it, move on" is being a little bit ignorant of the cultural discussion this ignited and the fact that it's one of the few dramas that's going to cross the billion-dollar mark.

My thoughts aside, it's not a fly-by-night movie.

 

would you prefer I write “I think” or “it is my opinion that” before “this movie is empty”?

Of course it’s my opinion when I say “this movie is empty”. No one has to accept it as fact.

 

but that comes off like " this is my opinion and I'm not open to discussing it or having my mind changed. I just want to say what I think". Same thing when your talking about something in person. If we're talking about a movie at work and you just say "this movie sucks". It like ok, I guess we'll change the subject

 

Thats not what my initial posts on the movie said. I talked pretty in depth about my issues with it. When I start seeing motives assigned to why people don’t like it, yeah, then I’ll say “no, it’s just bad”.

 

I remember someone here or on Twitter saying that this movie didn't deserve all this discussion because it will be forgotten by next year or something. I don't think that's the case anymore. Pretty surprised it made a billion. That's wild.

I do agree with whoever said it's probably going to be the new "college dorm poster" movie (a la Fight Club, Reservoir Dogs, Boondock Saints, etc.) lol.

 

I see your point and this isn't directed just at you. I think some posters, myself included, came into the thread and saw the later posts without the perspective of the earlier ones.

 

It’s also just hard when there’s pages and pages of really in depth discussion about not only the specifics of a film but about social media and biases in audiences and responsibility of creators and how sensitive issues are portrayed and then someone bumps it to say, “Actually this is a masterpiece and anyone who says differently is just hating to hate.” Those kinds of posts are just as dismissive as anything else, so when something has already been talked to death it often doesn’t seem worth it to go over the nuances again. Once you add in the fact that the discussion has already devolved into nonsense and fighting a few times before it becomes even easier to see why people would rather post memes and videos and funny tweets to keep it lighthearted.

 

Arthur Clownman deserves better than this dammit

 

I keep remembering the sound of the gun shots throughout the film as so distinct, and raw, that they made me incredibly uncomfortable. Wild considering how often you hear gun shots in movies & television these days.

 

This happened to me during the film "Gone Baby Gone" in the scene where John Ashton's character is shot in the neck.

 

This whole shit is kind of gonna be a spoiler so I'll just dark it all out.

Just saw Joker and the more I think about it the more I dislike it. I don't love how it uses the idea of the viewer not knowing what is real and kind of expects that to be viewed as what's smart about it. Some movies can get away with that. I'd say Inception does it pretty well. I don't feel like it's earned in this movie though.

Like, in my mind, pretty much for sure the Joker in this movie isn't the Joker we know to be a Batman villain. The age difference alone pretty much eliminates that possibility imo. I also don't think anything in the movie hints at this character being smart enough to be THE Joker. Can't imagine this guy pulling off the crazy crimes that Joker is supposed to be responsible for. So we watched a movie about a guy who maybe inspired the real Joker down the line. But a lot of it might have been not real. But who knows. But who cares because none of it is real because it's a movie. Which brings me back to my point of not liking the old trick of a movie having an "unreliable narrator" and that's supposed to make it more clever.

 

I just want you to all know at the music festival I was at with @ComedownMachine someone cosplayed as this version of the joker and it was hilarious to see.

 

This wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. It isn't even the worst film I watched today.

The way people rally around the death of the three yuppies was strange, as there appeared to be little information about them available to the public. It wasn't as if they had criminal records or there were details of their abuse of Fleck and the woman. There are a handful of leftists that would cheer it but overall people think murder is bad.

Its politics aren't as muddled as The Dark Knight Rises, but this idea that you can somehow turn superhero films into serious dramas is going to keep hitting the wall. There is just too much money invested; it is a surprise they were even able to get an R rating.

 

I didn't hate this, but I didn't find it all that interesting either. Had some solid moments, but it just never really grabbed my attention. I'm sure it's been talked about to death, but this probably could have been better if it wasn't put in Phillips's hands.

I don't know if I just bought too much into the hype around Phoenix's performance, but it was the thing I was looking forward to the most and I was kind of let down. It really just felt like his was given the direction of "this guy has mental problems, do that" without any true nuance.

 

The politics felt all over the place too me. One the one hand it seems to look down on how society treats those with mental health issues, but it also just paints everyone with mental health issues as psychotic. Then it's anti-1% and seems to be anti-police, but then it paints those protesting the rich and fighting against police violence as bad too.

 

Also I thought all those posts about Joker dancing to the Gary Glitter song were a joke.

 

One is risking venturing into extremely stupid territory when you examine comic books, but Batman and his universe is a pretty far-right understanding of the world. A benevolent rich man defending his city from the criminals, who seem to be more driven by destruction than anything else. In reality, the vast majority of crime is economic, and the reason they are driven to crime is because of the massive amount of wealth inequality created by billionaires, or in this case the Wayne family. The film sort of goes there, but Joker is a murderer and we assume in this universe the kid Bruce Wayne grows into the superhero we all know him as.

 

funnily enough, once this movie came out i've seen more and more people come around to concluding it's "not really that irresponsible" as everyone was worried it'd be initially. probably because it doesn't go all the way into the fray with problematic aspects. but honestly, that might be part of why it IS irresponsible. because it touches on mental health issues and whatnot, but rarely if ever does it fully go there. that's arguably the biggest issue here: it's practically the biggest half-measure ever. todd phillips completely split the difference here, kinda like how war dogs (which i didn't hate, to be fair) was torn between displaying the reprehensible realities of what the main characters were taking part in vs. making them look completely badass from the movie's pov. it tries to say something here (or at least, make it look like it's putting the effort in), yet it can't be bothered to honor what it's conveying with the proper approaches. that's a big portion in why i dislike this film more with every given moment of thought, and why i'm predicting it'll age horrendously even for most of those who like it at the time

 

Am I the only one who doesn’t believe that this Arthur Fleck is Batman’s nemesis Joker? More like a template/inspiration for the “real” one that comes along later.

 

I mean, he's neither, but that goes back to my annoyance that people think using elements of iconic stories equate to being set within those iconic worlds. (As in, no, people shouldn't assume that this version Bruce Wayne necessarily becomes a Batman someday.)