Joker, Reviewed: An Empty Beauty Full of Anxious Laughter

Please welcome new contributor Michael Frank...

by Michael Frank

The circus around Joker has been exhausting. It’s been a nonstop argument between every single person that posts a positive or negative review, causing friction between subgroups you didn’t even know existed. I admit I found myself having trouble separating the discourse from the film itself. I couldn’t forget the unfortunate interviews given by director Todd Phillips. When I sat in the packed-to-the-brim theater, my head was filled with expectations, anxiety, and the dozens of headlines, articles, and think-pieces I’ve read over the past few weeks. 

I’ve never seen a film provide so much discourse outside the screen, yet feel this empty and broken once it's playing in the confines of a theater. Joker is gorgeous, though, and unrelenting in its violence and instability, by way of both the titular character and its striking visuals...

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Will the Academy honor the epic feat of "Avengers: Endgame"?

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Back in July, Avengers: Endgame surpassed Avatar for the title of the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide. You’d think that would mean that nearly everyone who goes to the movies has seen it. At a guild screening in Los Angeles earlier this week, however, nearly half the audience put their hands up when asked if they were seeing this three-hour blockbuster for the first time. Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who were on hand for a Q & A, were surprised and almost delighted by this showing...

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Links: Joker, Spidey, Clint, Kristen, and more

New Yorker  “movies I can’t watch anymore because my climate anxiety is too real”

Filmmaker Laura Dern will get a tribute at the Gotham Awards on December 2nd. Your move Jennifer Lopez

Coming Soon - Because Warner Bros can't help themselves with Clint Eastwood flicks, The Ballad of Richard Jewell is joining the already crowded December calendar of film releases. Eastwood’s last Oscar-smash was American Sniper (2014) though the past three pictures (Sully, 15:17 to Paris, The Mule) have not interested Oscar much at all.

After the jump Kristen Chenoweth, Spider-Man, Joker and more…

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Yes No Maybe So: Joaquin Phoenix is "Joker

by Tony Ruggio

The internet’s been aflush with grousing over Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker, a boiling pot of loyal DC fanboys and girls versus cinephile crusaders. Stir the pot with critics and pundits who have read an early draft of the script (why do that?) and the discourse, pre-discourse, and twee little jokes about discourse have been headache-inducing. I don’t care so much for pearl-clutching over what the film’s worldview might be... judging films on such things, particularly before anyone has seen one minute of finished film, is unfair to art and the place it occupies in pop culture. It’s not a filmmaker’s responsibility to coddle a country or avoid uncomfortable points of view.

That being said, there are pre-existing mixed feelings, and the final trailer only exacerbates them…

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No Time to Link

• Variety cultural conversations about a TV show lift its Emmy prospects
• The Guardian on Leonard Bernstein's 10 year affair with a Japanese fan
• /Film Bond 25 has a title No Time to Die
• Daily Xtra Joey Moser remembers seeing movies with his father on the weekend - lovely

After the jump Love Simon, Spider-Man divorce, cool film festivals, and Marvel Comics avoiding anti-fascist "politics" in a genre built on just that...

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