Featuring a mental breakdown (mine!) more believable than anything in the movie.
This will be a long spoiler-filled review but I have to explain first what happened during the screening and how it was the worst one I've ever been at. I understand how people will think that my low rating is because of what happened and if I had a better crowd, my opinion would be high like it is with most film fans. Everyone will just have to accept my word that I was not enjoying the movie even before I snapped and lost my cool, as this happened deep in the third act. A group of A-holes left even before the movie was finished... why, I have no idea. They were jerks during the screening so I was not crestfallen that they left... actually, they did not leave the auditorium: rather, they were LOUDLY taking in the hallway of the auditorium; why they did not go out completely is a mystery to me, but of course everyone in the auditorium could hear them and as no one was doing anything about it... I flipped out and confronted them!
No one here knows me personally but again, you will have to accept my notion that this is extremely uncharacteristic of me as I am normally not a confrontational person at all. I yelled at them for being so rude and stated, “Don't you even care that everyone else can hear you taking?” Their response was “hurr... durr...” and they mouthed off to me. As great as it would have been for me to bow up to them and make them all leave or rally other people there to join my side and make them leave or shut the F up... that would be like Arthur Fleck's delusions of having a romantic relationship with Zazie Beets... and by the way, OF COURSE that was a figment of his imagination... at least with me, I figured that out right away long before the reveal. Anyhow, I did have to back down as no one was there to support me and those cretins looked like the type that would eventually resort to physical violence, so I regrettably had no other choice... of course it took them a few more minutes to finally leave, because they were stupid Troglodytes and if I could, I would place a death curse upon all of them!
Finally, I can discuss Joker and like I said, even before “the incident” I was already unhappy with the movie. As I always have to note during comic book movies, most of them just aren't for me so that is why I don't view most of them. I agree with Scorsese and Coppola (to a degree), in other words. I also do not have a preference between Marvel and DC, which I understand is still a big deal to many. Viewing this was not because it featured a famous character I've seen on TV and movies several times before. I just viewed it as a standard movie OBVIOUSLY indebted to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy which looked at a lonely man's mental breakdown before he snaps and the setting was an obvious substitute for the crappy New York City of old: like in Taxi Driver there is trash all over due to a sanitation strike, only Taxi did not make that explicit and it was happenstance because in real life NYC was experiencing a sanitation strike.
This started off fine as we get to know Arthur Fleck, his life, his mental health issues and how others treat him for being “different”. His compulsive laughter thing was a little dopey, but alright... as this went along, the movie started to lose me and I realized this movie was just a pastiche of all those dark 70's character drama pieces. Joaquim Phoenix did the best he could with the material but making Thomas Wayne a rich jerk was an odd decision, and all the obvious comic book moments just took me out as I just did not care. The longer the movie went on-and the more and more Arthur awkwardly danced for no real good reason-the worse and more preposterous it got. I was fed up with its incredibly muddled messages and what it was trying to say was the point of the film long before we see Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered AGAIN. I was fed up with how over the top miserable they made Fleck's childhood and that was long before the befuddling final scene that took place months later and wasn't necessary at all.
What ultimately made me hate this was realizing how the story makes no logical sense. I realize this is an unfortunate trend in modern Hollywood and even most film fans seem to be fine with that and love things I ended up hating (I am looking at you, The Last Jedi and Gone Girl). Like I said, I realized Arthur did not actually develop a relationship with Sophie, the young lady who lives in the same squalor and awfulness of that dingy apartment complex. Likewise, it seemed obvious to me that everything revolving around Arthur appearing on the national late night talk show hosted by Murray Franklin; of course we already saw him fantasize about being in the crowd then being brought onstage so the unbelievable story of how he actually appears on the show then murdered him on national television had to be the figment of the imagination of someone losing his grip with reality... right? Apparently not!
Just who exactly was in that random 1981-the cinema marquee advertising Blow Out and seeing posters for the likes of Wolfen and Excalibur prove this-comedy club filming Fleck delivering an incredibly awkward and not good comedy routine? How did Franklin get that footage... and why was he such a dick that he played it on air without Fleck's permission or prior knowledge, making him a national laughingstock? How could I believe any of this was actually happening? I for certain did not accept that Fleck was actually on Franklin's show as a guest because the audience loved Fleck awkward act; I mean, Arthur was able to bring a gun on set, went on that long diatribe and admitted to a triple murder without the show immediately going into commercial break... and apparently, Murray being executed by Fleck was also shown?! For that matter, this national talk show has no security in the building, let alone on set? All of this was utterly illogical to me and I can not accept that it actually occurred.
Most other people loving this is fine; in fact, it'd be easier for me if I could agree with the masses and note how much of a masterpiece it is. Unfortunately, I thought this was awful and yesterday as a whole was pretty bad; I won't get into why as I don't want to write a Doctoral thesis here; just note that the cherry on top of that s*** sundae was the power going out at home... for FOUR hours. I suppose I should not have expected greatness from the director of The Hangover movies and Road Trip, yet I did go into this with an open mind. Like I want to forget all about that day, if I could mind-erase this entire theatrical experience and how ham-fisted and obvious Joker was when it should have been ambiguous and subtle instead... I would do such a thing.
This will be a long spoiler-filled review but I have to explain first what happened during the screening and how it was the worst one I've ever been at. I understand how people will think that my low rating is because of what happened and if I had a better crowd, my opinion would be high like it is with most film fans. Everyone will just have to accept my word that I was not enjoying the movie even before I snapped and lost my cool, as this happened deep in the third act. A group of A-holes left even before the movie was finished... why, I have no idea. They were jerks during the screening so I was not crestfallen that they left... actually, they did not leave the auditorium: rather, they were LOUDLY taking in the hallway of the auditorium; why they did not go out completely is a mystery to me, but of course everyone in the auditorium could hear them and as no one was doing anything about it... I flipped out and confronted them!
No one here knows me personally but again, you will have to accept my notion that this is extremely uncharacteristic of me as I am normally not a confrontational person at all. I yelled at them for being so rude and stated, “Don't you even care that everyone else can hear you taking?” Their response was “hurr... durr...” and they mouthed off to me. As great as it would have been for me to bow up to them and make them all leave or rally other people there to join my side and make them leave or shut the F up... that would be like Arthur Fleck's delusions of having a romantic relationship with Zazie Beets... and by the way, OF COURSE that was a figment of his imagination... at least with me, I figured that out right away long before the reveal. Anyhow, I did have to back down as no one was there to support me and those cretins looked like the type that would eventually resort to physical violence, so I regrettably had no other choice... of course it took them a few more minutes to finally leave, because they were stupid Troglodytes and if I could, I would place a death curse upon all of them!
Finally, I can discuss Joker and like I said, even before “the incident” I was already unhappy with the movie. As I always have to note during comic book movies, most of them just aren't for me so that is why I don't view most of them. I agree with Scorsese and Coppola (to a degree), in other words. I also do not have a preference between Marvel and DC, which I understand is still a big deal to many. Viewing this was not because it featured a famous character I've seen on TV and movies several times before. I just viewed it as a standard movie OBVIOUSLY indebted to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy which looked at a lonely man's mental breakdown before he snaps and the setting was an obvious substitute for the crappy New York City of old: like in Taxi Driver there is trash all over due to a sanitation strike, only Taxi did not make that explicit and it was happenstance because in real life NYC was experiencing a sanitation strike.
This started off fine as we get to know Arthur Fleck, his life, his mental health issues and how others treat him for being “different”. His compulsive laughter thing was a little dopey, but alright... as this went along, the movie started to lose me and I realized this movie was just a pastiche of all those dark 70's character drama pieces. Joaquim Phoenix did the best he could with the material but making Thomas Wayne a rich jerk was an odd decision, and all the obvious comic book moments just took me out as I just did not care. The longer the movie went on-and the more and more Arthur awkwardly danced for no real good reason-the worse and more preposterous it got. I was fed up with its incredibly muddled messages and what it was trying to say was the point of the film long before we see Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered AGAIN. I was fed up with how over the top miserable they made Fleck's childhood and that was long before the befuddling final scene that took place months later and wasn't necessary at all.
What ultimately made me hate this was realizing how the story makes no logical sense. I realize this is an unfortunate trend in modern Hollywood and even most film fans seem to be fine with that and love things I ended up hating (I am looking at you, The Last Jedi and Gone Girl). Like I said, I realized Arthur did not actually develop a relationship with Sophie, the young lady who lives in the same squalor and awfulness of that dingy apartment complex. Likewise, it seemed obvious to me that everything revolving around Arthur appearing on the national late night talk show hosted by Murray Franklin; of course we already saw him fantasize about being in the crowd then being brought onstage so the unbelievable story of how he actually appears on the show then murdered him on national television had to be the figment of the imagination of someone losing his grip with reality... right? Apparently not!
Just who exactly was in that random 1981-the cinema marquee advertising Blow Out and seeing posters for the likes of Wolfen and Excalibur prove this-comedy club filming Fleck delivering an incredibly awkward and not good comedy routine? How did Franklin get that footage... and why was he such a dick that he played it on air without Fleck's permission or prior knowledge, making him a national laughingstock? How could I believe any of this was actually happening? I for certain did not accept that Fleck was actually on Franklin's show as a guest because the audience loved Fleck awkward act; I mean, Arthur was able to bring a gun on set, went on that long diatribe and admitted to a triple murder without the show immediately going into commercial break... and apparently, Murray being executed by Fleck was also shown?! For that matter, this national talk show has no security in the building, let alone on set? All of this was utterly illogical to me and I can not accept that it actually occurred.
Most other people loving this is fine; in fact, it'd be easier for me if I could agree with the masses and note how much of a masterpiece it is. Unfortunately, I thought this was awful and yesterday as a whole was pretty bad; I won't get into why as I don't want to write a Doctoral thesis here; just note that the cherry on top of that s*** sundae was the power going out at home... for FOUR hours. I suppose I should not have expected greatness from the director of The Hangover movies and Road Trip, yet I did go into this with an open mind. Like I want to forget all about that day, if I could mind-erase this entire theatrical experience and how ham-fisted and obvious Joker was when it should have been ambiguous and subtle instead... I would do such a thing.
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