A Review. No spoilers.
Posted 2nd October 2019
#imdb IMDb
It is one of those movies you cannot begin dissecting without going back in time. #HeathLedger made sure of that. The character, its ashen whiteness, the dark coal of burning eyelids, the unblurred version of pure evil flicking like pupils in it and the idea of why would someone be that person, may have left all of us at some point wondering ... how did the Joker get this far out?
The latest from the timeline of the Batman saga ... unfair to say that it was anything less than what I expected... but then I am an unfair sort of reviewer. So bear with me.
For me, just me, the joker (articulately and deftly handled by a maniacal and tragicomic #joachinphoenix) was everything and more. It has pain like you haven’t felt in a while. A stab, a gangrenous wound a burning bullet hole.
But then came the preaching, the soothing sad telling, the narrative makes you weep for the good guy talking, the uncelebrated idea of “feel bad for me because god knows I was wronged”. That just didn’t sit well with me.
Call me cynical but for me the joker was best unapologetic for trying to be the divine artistic balance to the insanely plotted goodness of the Batman ilk. I do not for a moment feel that his character needed to be justified.
I wanted to know that for once evil was unprecedented. Mad. Pure. Thorough. That god sends a measure of everything to this godforsaken planet because that’s the way I wanted it. The menace the extended red grin that spread across ledger’s face was not of a man from a history of sorrow. It was a man who did not believe in any system at all. It was his system and no other. And yes, he did like to watch the world burn.
How good is the acting you ask. Don’t. It’s superlative. It’s an ode to a man who died too soon ... his craft unfulfilled by drugs and depression. And Phoenix rises to the calling, to this role like a bird risen from the ashes. He reenchants it, he recrafts it, he reboots it, to suit the script with such unaffected crystal perfection.
There are moments when you feel the editing, especially the ending, could have ended 3 edits sooner, but then I edit for a living and chopping is what I like best.
Extra pounds didn’t add meat to this story: but what a story. It reminds you of the graphic novel “the killing joke” at every turn of the camera and yet I longed for more, for more sin, more insanity, more lust for the wrong - yes it is true, I found the film falling short of making me feel horrible about the joker, because that’s what I wanted to feel. I didn’t want to feel bad for him. He has been the one connoisseur of darkness i found unparalleled in any depiction on celluloid and I wanted to keep it that way.
What the movie has managed is that tiny tiny slit between the lids, the difference that marks a brilliant film from a good film. This one is somewhere in between. It’s brilliant in its performances and good in its storytelling. I wish I could say more, but then I can’t expect you to feel what I feel, given I secured the first day first show. Buy that ticket and celebrate these two greats - Heath Ledge will forever rule this kingdom but Joachin Phoenix is for sure the only other man he would have liked to take his throne.
Because.
This joker is moulded in pure love. Pure unrequited love. In horrors that only bring laughter that is but a “medical condition”. Because we are all Jokers at the end of the day... and one must ask at the end of every such screening... “why so serious?”
Posted 2nd October 2019
#imdb IMDb
It is one of those movies you cannot begin dissecting without going back in time. #HeathLedger made sure of that. The character, its ashen whiteness, the dark coal of burning eyelids, the unblurred version of pure evil flicking like pupils in it and the idea of why would someone be that person, may have left all of us at some point wondering ... how did the Joker get this far out?
The latest from the timeline of the Batman saga ... unfair to say that it was anything less than what I expected... but then I am an unfair sort of reviewer. So bear with me.
For me, just me, the joker (articulately and deftly handled by a maniacal and tragicomic #joachinphoenix) was everything and more. It has pain like you haven’t felt in a while. A stab, a gangrenous wound a burning bullet hole.
But then came the preaching, the soothing sad telling, the narrative makes you weep for the good guy talking, the uncelebrated idea of “feel bad for me because god knows I was wronged”. That just didn’t sit well with me.
Call me cynical but for me the joker was best unapologetic for trying to be the divine artistic balance to the insanely plotted goodness of the Batman ilk. I do not for a moment feel that his character needed to be justified.
I wanted to know that for once evil was unprecedented. Mad. Pure. Thorough. That god sends a measure of everything to this godforsaken planet because that’s the way I wanted it. The menace the extended red grin that spread across ledger’s face was not of a man from a history of sorrow. It was a man who did not believe in any system at all. It was his system and no other. And yes, he did like to watch the world burn.
How good is the acting you ask. Don’t. It’s superlative. It’s an ode to a man who died too soon ... his craft unfulfilled by drugs and depression. And Phoenix rises to the calling, to this role like a bird risen from the ashes. He reenchants it, he recrafts it, he reboots it, to suit the script with such unaffected crystal perfection.
There are moments when you feel the editing, especially the ending, could have ended 3 edits sooner, but then I edit for a living and chopping is what I like best.
Extra pounds didn’t add meat to this story: but what a story. It reminds you of the graphic novel “the killing joke” at every turn of the camera and yet I longed for more, for more sin, more insanity, more lust for the wrong - yes it is true, I found the film falling short of making me feel horrible about the joker, because that’s what I wanted to feel. I didn’t want to feel bad for him. He has been the one connoisseur of darkness i found unparalleled in any depiction on celluloid and I wanted to keep it that way.
What the movie has managed is that tiny tiny slit between the lids, the difference that marks a brilliant film from a good film. This one is somewhere in between. It’s brilliant in its performances and good in its storytelling. I wish I could say more, but then I can’t expect you to feel what I feel, given I secured the first day first show. Buy that ticket and celebrate these two greats - Heath Ledge will forever rule this kingdom but Joachin Phoenix is for sure the only other man he would have liked to take his throne.
Because.
This joker is moulded in pure love. Pure unrequited love. In horrors that only bring laughter that is but a “medical condition”. Because we are all Jokers at the end of the day... and one must ask at the end of every such screening... “why so serious?”
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