{"id":10273,"date":"2019-09-16T12:40:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T19:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=10273"},"modified":"2019-09-18T12:43:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T19:43:10","slug":"tiff-joker-review-three-reasons-to-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/joker-review\/","title":{"rendered":"TIFF &#8216;Joker&#8217; Review: Three Reasons To See It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">We\u2019re all familiar with the Joker. Immortalized in film and television by performers like Cesar Romero, Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson, and Heath Ledger, the character is famously without origin. An unreliable narrator, he has said of himself, &#8220;If I&#8217;m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.&#8221; He is violence and chaos incarnate. Which is why it was controversial when\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Hangover<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0filmmaker Todd Phillips was announced as the director of an\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Elseworlds<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">-style Joker one-off film starring Joaquin Phoenix. His idea, after all, was to give the Joker a sympathetic origin story, one that many fans thought he didn\u2019t need.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In this iteration, Phoenix plays Arthur\u00a0Fleck, a down-on-his-luck nobody with aspirations of stand-up comedy. Arthur works as a clown for hire for special events, businesses, and even pediatric hospital visits. He suffers from a condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably when he\u2019s stressed, uncomfortable, angry, or sad, giving him the signature manic chortle. He cares for his mother, Penny (Frances Conroy), and largely keeps to himself. That is until he gets pushed too far.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TIzbgL4lY6g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Joker&#8217;s comic book philosophy is that \u201call it takes is one bad day\u201d to get to his level of violent, chaotic insanity. So does Phillips manage to bring the Joker to life through Phoenix\u2019s Arthur\u00a0Fleck? And what makes this film worth paying attention to? We have three reasons that you\u2019ll definitely want to consider.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1. Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s Rendition Of The Joker Is Completely Raw<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1564699695\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1564699694662_276125_cops_8.jpg\" width=\"1555\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">It\u2019s often hard to pick a favorite iteration of the Joker. Jack Nicholson\u2019s Jack Napier in 1989 is a classic and became the ultimate standard against which all other performances would be measured. Mark Hamill\u2019s version of the Joker would become the single most iconic vocal performance of the character, as yet to be dethroned. And then Heath Ledger changed the game completely, bringing to life the \u201cagent of chaos\u201d mythos with multiple possible origin stories and zero motivation other than to watch the world burn.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Now we have Arthur\u00a0Fleck, a Joker with a clear, defined origin that positions him as a tragic hero and victim of circumstance. His motivations are similarly defined, against type for the character as we know him. And while this may not be the Joker we\u2019ve come to know and\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">fear, Phillips\u2019 character and Phoenix\u2019s performance position this version as an interesting\u00a0Elseworld\u00a0option where we know where he came from and why he does the things he does. Phoenix\u2019s physicality is excellent, contorting and manipulating his frail frame as necessary to make anyone in the theatre uncomfortable. His uncontrollable laughing is there to make us wince, and wince we do. Everything about him is deliberately cringe-worthy until he has that one bad day and becomes what we always knew he&#8217;d become.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">2. The Cinematography And Score<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:360,&quot;335559738&quot;:360,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:276,&quot;335559991&quot;:360}\">\u00a0Are Attention-Grabbing<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1554308883\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1554308882666_276125_cops_4.jpg\" width=\"1781\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Edited by Jeff Groth (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Religulous<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">)\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">with cinematography by Lawrence Sher (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Garden State<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Hangover<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">), the film looks great. It\u2019s the dark, seedy version of Gotham we\u2019ve come to know. The film lingers a little too long on Arthur when he has his laughing fits, sometimes for over a minute of uncut time. This, however, seems to be the point of this iteration &#8211; make you watch every agonizing second of his downward spiral into chaos.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The score by\u00a0Hildur\u00a0Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir\u00a0(<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Arrival<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Revenant<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) brings a lot of the dark mood we\u2019ve come to associate with Joker to the screen. In actual fact,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btWq_b345b0\" data-rel=\"lightbox-video-0\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">the score was predominantly written before they had even started shooting<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, influencing the mood and direction of the film. Everything\u2019s accented by certain popular song choices, some of which make sense and others feel comically off-beat. \u201cThe Hey Song\u201d by Gary Glitter, for instance, feels a little out of place, but will definitely grab your attention.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span data-contrast=\"auto\">3. The Conversation About It Is As Important As The Movie Itself\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1564699710\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1564699709739_276125_cops_10.jpg\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><strong>(WARNING: This section contains mild spoilers.)<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This is the most important part of\u00a0<i>Joker<\/i>\u00a0and the one that\u2019s going to draw the most ire from Joker stans and people we\u2019ve actively come to fear in society: For better or worse, this film positions the Joker as a tragic hero. We\u2019re never made to feel like he\u2019s a bad person or that what he\u2019s doing is wrong. Oh, sure, we know logically he&#8217;s a villain, but the bulk of sympathy is almost always with the protagonist; such is the case here. There is no moral backbone to the film, which sets Joker up as a hero for the people. What\u2019s more, it positions the people, the ordinary citizens of Gotham, as Joker stans of the highest order. So much so, in fact, that they riot in his name &#8211; or, rather, in his image. Phillips has positioned Joker&#8217;s deranged everyman as a threat that\u2019s justified because they\u2019re fighting against the oppressive powers of the wealthy elite who run the government.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Yes, they go there.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">And while this would be perfectly fine to watch at virtually any other point in history, it&#8217;s worth asking whether or not now is the time for a film like this. Joker is a dangerous character at the best of times, but he\u2019s infinitely worse when you give him a sympathetic backstory establishing him as a hero of the people. He was done wrong by all the women in his life and bullied relentlessly by everyone else, and finally snapped, taking justice into his own hands with a gun. It\u2019s worth it to see the film if only to stay present in the discourse around it, one that will likely continue to be contentious and heated moving forward.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Whether Todd Phillips likes it or not, he\u2019s created a politically polarizing film that simply cannot exist in a vacuum. Arthur\u00a0Fleck\u00a0is the byproduct of our current climate, and he reflects it perfectly. It might not be a necessary film, but it is certainly a relevant one, and maybe that alone is enough of a reason that you absolutely must see it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re all familiar with the Joker. Immortalized in film and television by performers like Cesar Romero, Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson, and Heath Ledger, the character is famously without origin. An unreliable narrator, he has said of himself, &#8220;If I&#8217;m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.&#8221; He is violence and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,52],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-10273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dc","category-review","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10288,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10273\/revisions\/10288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}