[psmith2.0]

It’s super grim and very unfun. Nobody to root for at all. If you’re rooting for Joker, go get yourself checked out, you’re part of the problem.

[drewprops]

I'll take up the challenge to argue that Joker was a good film! I was prepared for utter crap, but it wasn't. It showed a slow, believable slide into madness. But I do need to watch it again to get dialed in again (and am gladly willing to, something that I rarely do).


...

[709]

I thought that he trapped himself in the fridge and the rest of the movie was his dream while losing consciousness. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I saw it at the theatre and haven't rewatched it since, but it might be time to do that. I remember the game show ending being a bit too overwrought for my taste but overall I liked it enough – not enough for any excitement about Part 2 though.

[psmith2.0]

That's kinda how I took it as well. Just him imagining a better life for himself, since that neighbor relationship turned out to be all in his head, I figured so was everything else. Such a glum, sad-sack movie. The complete cinematic opposite of, say, Forrest Gump (the person, not the movie). Gump, a decent idiot who lucked into good things, vs. Arthur Fleck, I miserable lump who created his own misery/trouble with his every action/decision. Halfway in, I was like "where's that police brutality/overreach we're always hearing about? Can't someone shoot this guy and put him out of everyone's misery?" That was the toughest sit-through of a movie...

It's like someone really wanted to set Taxi Driver in the realm of comic books. That's how it came across to me. And such a thing was done far better, decades ago, by a better director, writer and lead actors. I've seen "slow descent into insanity" done much better, more thoughtfully. Joker just irritated me on so many little levels. I kept looking around for the hidden camera capturing my increasingly pissy reactions/eye-rolling, etc.

"This is all a joke, right? Nobody actually made this movie for serious, wide release, did they? It, itself, is some kind of weird, meta joke and 'gotcha!', surely. I'm gonna wind up on Impractical Jokers or some Comedy Central hidden camera show, I just know it."

[kscherer]

If I want to watch someone fall from general asshole into straight-up nutso status, I'll watch Falling Down. Everyone could relate to that guy, but I think the vast majority of cinema goers came out of there thinking, "well, that's what happens when you lose control!"

Dude wasn't portrayed as a hero or someone "good" who was just having a bad day. He was an absolute ass-hat that went entirely overboard.

These days, that same guy would be portrayed as the hero.

[psmith2.0]

By some folks, fore sure. That movie was satisfying in a couple of places (standing up to the two gang members, fighting back against the Neo-Nazi army surplus store owner), but, overall, I couldn’t empathize or get behind Douglas’ character. He got what he deserved. In the end he was just a criminal and a menace. You can have your thoughts/beliefs, but when they’re bad, illegal ones, and you act on them, any race, background, religion, social stance, political leaning, etc., screw your. You get what’s coming. Handcuffs, a S.W.A.T. unit swinging into your house on ropes or a bullet(s) from The Man. Nothing is an excuse to go in a lawless rampage, scaring/hurting others.

I feel the same way about Breaking Down as I do ]i]Joker[/i]…”can someone shoot this idiot?! He’s gone too far and it’s no longer funny/entertaining!” Thankfully, Robert Duvall granted my wish.

[709]

Joker: Folie à Deux | Official Teaser Trailer

Looks like it's packed full of the ambiguous reality/madness that the latter part of the first movie was full of, but it definitely looks entertaining. Joaquin Phoenix is good in everything.

[psmith2.0]

Ugh. She's the only intriguing/interesting thing in this. The rest just looks like outtakes from the first one. Yeah, with this "musical" angle, I have to believe most of the movie is in that nut's head (where he's on stage, NOT in trouble with the law, has bagged a babe like her, etc.).

I'm sorry, real life is bleak/morose enough. I don't need to pay $12+ to see it all filtered through some other asshole's eyes.

Overall, I just don't find crazy people all that interesting/entertaining. I prefer to keep my distance, even cinematically. Because, being crazy/disconnected from reality, you truly never know what they're gonna do. And I don't really wanna be around to find out. Again, even cinematically. That out-of-nowhere eye-gouging scene in the first one really hit me and kinda grossed me out in a way I haven't been by a movie since the opening D-Day sequence of Saving Private Ryan. Some stuff, I just not expecting/prepared for, and they really pack a punch. I just don't need that in my life, really. I'd prefer a Joker movie about him being a full-on gangster/criminal mastermind. It's the "delving into mental illness" of these flicks I can do without. Kinda glamorizes insanity/violence, and I'm just not sure we need more of that in the culture, as I look around. This Joker is too unhinged to pull off a bank or jewelry store heist, or lead a band of street-level criminals and degenerates. He just hurts innocent, unarmed people in his orbit. That's not a fun outing at the multiplex, for me.

Man, Gaga has a way of looking sexy without even trying. She's someone I find far hotter the more "normal" she is (A Star is Born, this trailer). When she's all made up like an alien raccoon and wearing stupid, wild-ass clothes, she does nothing for me. But when she sets all that aside and is more "the girl next door"...rawwwwrrrrrrr. I wanna live in her neighborhood.

[Matsu]

I always felt there was a lot of similarity between Walter White and William Foster...

[psmith2.0]

Walter White, the media's favorite meth maker. He sure got a big pass, huh?

That show, while well-written/acted, for sure, gave me the creeps and I always felt like I needed a shower afterwards. Ugh!

[Matsu]

In many ways the anti hero is nothing new. The tragic flaw is simply exposed earlier and embellished in a way that blurs the difference between hero and villain. People get really excited by the idea of peering into a psyche. It's voyeurism, same as looking at all the naughty bits, better even.