{"id":1707,"date":"2019-10-15T15:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2020-01-17T20:50:44","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T03:50:44","slug":"joker-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/15\/joker-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Joker (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joker\"Joker<\/strong><\/span>
\nYear: 2019
\nRating: R
\nLength: 122 minutes \/ 2.03 hours<\/p>\n

With the saturation of superhero movies between Marvel and DC at all-time highs, it was only a matter of time before a movie like Joker<\/em> (2019) would come along. If anything, the current socio-political environment in the real world is ripe for this kind of story. While superhero films are appealing to show how individuals with exotic abilities can do battle in CGI-heavy fight sequences, there is a certain amount of horror involved with Joker<\/em> in the sense that it could realistically happen. There aren\u2019t any radioactive spiders. There isn\u2019t any high-tech gadgetry. There\u2019s only mental illness.<\/p>\n

I applaud the team behind Joker<\/em> for not resorting to hackneyed comic book origin stories like chemical spills or \u201ctit for tat\u201d vendettas (even if we had to watch one of the same origin stories again near the end). The casting of Joaquin Phoenix was initially an odd choice, but he nails the role. His type of methodical acting almost humanizes one of the worst villains in the DC universe. And I think that\u2019s how this movie works so well: villains aren\u2019t evil \u201cjust because.\u201d There is a logic in the madness of Arthur Fleck, and the fact that the system failed him is only one of the reasons why he became the Joker.<\/p>\n

The fact that this movie could stand by itself with no strong association with anything related to comic books makes it a triumph in itself. I kept thinking that a film like this could just have easily been about John Wayne Gacy, Jr. instead of a fictional serial killer clown. Using the perspective of Arthur Fleck to show the undulation between the real and the insane was a bold move that might confuse some viewers but will likely become clearer with each repeat viewing. And with only a handful of truly violent scenes, Joker<\/em> demands repeat viewings.<\/p>\n

A masterpiece of mental illness, I give Joker<\/em> 5.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" <\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" <\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" <\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong> <\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joker Year: 2019 Rating: R Length: 122 minutes \/ 2.03 hours With the saturation of superhero movies between Marvel and DC at all-time highs, it was only a matter of time before a movie like Joker (2019) would come along. If anything, the current socio-political environment in the real world is ripe for this kind of story. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,2,370,369],"tags":[1576,565,908,2042,2040,13,2041,8],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-0-stars","category-movie","category-nominee","category-oscar","tag-1576","tag-batman","tag-dc","tag-joaquin-phoenix","tag-joker","tag-movie","tag-origin-story","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}