Jude Anthany Joseph's third feature, after Ohm Shanti Oshana and Oru Muthassi Gadha, released on Prime Video at midnight today. This seemingly feel-good film, also seemingly made in limited spaces and with a shoestring budget, tackles a concept and issue never tested before in Malayalam cinema circles. In Sara'S, we follow the life of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a young, bubbly, yet unapologetic filmmaker who struggles to make it big in the industry. She continuously assists male directors and is in the scripting works of her dream film. Sara has decided, from her school days, that she would not bear any kids. This is when she meets Jeevan (Sunny Wayne); her relationship with him subsequently brings her ideology and decision into a confrontation with the established norms of society, family and child-rearing. Anna Ben in Sara'S The best aspect in which Sara'S has excelled, without doubt, is its hard-hitting taut script. Debutant Akshay Hareesh deserves praise for managin...
Sometimes the society one lives in is the biggest villain. The structures, the people, the very system that dictates how things work, become the catalyst in a man's slow descent into madness, into dilemma. It may be this year's Joker, Todd Phillips' retelling of the legend of the infamous comic book super-villain and arch-nemesis of the Caped Crusader, that best works in depicting this socially relevant and prominent issue, after Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, Taxi Driver. Here's Reviewer's review of the film.
In the sprawling city of Gotham, we first see Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) painting his face to work as a party clown. But we are sure that the smile he paints on his face is just a facade, his real life is in the deep recesses of the above mentioned sprawling Gotham city, where he is only one in the hoardes of people who struggle to find jobs and meet their ends. His attempts to be a stand-up comic is a complete failure- people view his jokes as freakishly dark and morose. In Joker, Gotham isn't a city protected by a masked vigilante; in fact, Gotham is the epitome of a struggling city, in the likes of those cities afflicted by the side effects of the glorified processes of "industrialization" and "modernisation". Despite the masquerade perpetrated by the wealthy and affluent upper class, the real Gotham lies in the squalor, the lanes, the neglect and the poor living standard. We see an amalgamation of all that in our protagonist, Arthur Fleck, who despite his attempts to cheer people and "bring happiness to the world", ends up sidelined, ostracized and literally beaten up by people who consider him a freak. The reason for that is a pathological condition that results him in engaging in hysterical laughter unnecessarily, and which obviously scares the people around him, despite us sympathising with him the entire time.
Ever since Nolan's The Dark Knight and the legendary portrayal of the Joker by Heath Ledger, audiences would have found it hard to find a suitable replacement for the masked supervillain, for which Ledger had set an incredible benchmark. A testament to that is the Academy Award awarded to the actor, albeit posthumously. However, Todd Phillips manages to bring out the best in Joaquin Phoenix, who does a remarkable job in portraying the angst, the frustration, the wrath and finally the slow descent into madness. The zenith of Phoenix's performance can be seen when he depicts Arthur Fleck's pathological condition- his attempt to bawl and cry like a child fails and goes in vain as it erupts in hysterical laughter. An uneasiness can be felt in the viewer's guts when he/she sees this well-shot scene.
Joaquin Phoenix is joined by the ranks of legendary Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz. But despite their on-screen presence, they are allotted only less screen time. Phillips ensures, and successfully, to keep the spotlight on Phoenix's acting genius. Phillips has deftly written in scenes to showcase Fleck's frustration and psychotic behavior; but these become opportunities for Phoenix to pull off these scenes wonderfully.
In Joker's psychological take on the human mind, it is the attempt to depict the various influencers on an individual that gains much attention when looking at the film from a critical point of view. There is the city of Gotham- portrayed in its' two-faceted existence that boasts of glory and aristocracy in one hand and the poverty and helplessness in the other. A critical insight into the state of a city can be seen through Arthur Fleck's eyes. Then, there is the system- a system which cries at the sight of three apparently decent young men, but feigns ignorance and, at times, mocks the laymen who live amidst the squalor of the city. Then, there is the very theme, the complex human mind- a mind that at times, loses the sense of living, but later regains it in the most morbid of ways. What pushes a mentally-ill loner into further derangement- is it his psyche or the world around him? Joker is an ambitious effort to address that question.
One needn't look out for the usual comic book references and Easter eggs. Joker is no movie for that.
MPAA rating: R (for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images)
Runtime: 122 minutes
Reviewer-The Blog©
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In the sprawling city of Gotham, we first see Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) painting his face to work as a party clown. But we are sure that the smile he paints on his face is just a facade, his real life is in the deep recesses of the above mentioned sprawling Gotham city, where he is only one in the hoardes of people who struggle to find jobs and meet their ends. His attempts to be a stand-up comic is a complete failure- people view his jokes as freakishly dark and morose. In Joker, Gotham isn't a city protected by a masked vigilante; in fact, Gotham is the epitome of a struggling city, in the likes of those cities afflicted by the side effects of the glorified processes of "industrialization" and "modernisation". Despite the masquerade perpetrated by the wealthy and affluent upper class, the real Gotham lies in the squalor, the lanes, the neglect and the poor living standard. We see an amalgamation of all that in our protagonist, Arthur Fleck, who despite his attempts to cheer people and "bring happiness to the world", ends up sidelined, ostracized and literally beaten up by people who consider him a freak. The reason for that is a pathological condition that results him in engaging in hysterical laughter unnecessarily, and which obviously scares the people around him, despite us sympathising with him the entire time.
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| Joaquin Phoenix in Joker |
Ever since Nolan's The Dark Knight and the legendary portrayal of the Joker by Heath Ledger, audiences would have found it hard to find a suitable replacement for the masked supervillain, for which Ledger had set an incredible benchmark. A testament to that is the Academy Award awarded to the actor, albeit posthumously. However, Todd Phillips manages to bring out the best in Joaquin Phoenix, who does a remarkable job in portraying the angst, the frustration, the wrath and finally the slow descent into madness. The zenith of Phoenix's performance can be seen when he depicts Arthur Fleck's pathological condition- his attempt to bawl and cry like a child fails and goes in vain as it erupts in hysterical laughter. An uneasiness can be felt in the viewer's guts when he/she sees this well-shot scene.
Joaquin Phoenix is joined by the ranks of legendary Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz. But despite their on-screen presence, they are allotted only less screen time. Phillips ensures, and successfully, to keep the spotlight on Phoenix's acting genius. Phillips has deftly written in scenes to showcase Fleck's frustration and psychotic behavior; but these become opportunities for Phoenix to pull off these scenes wonderfully. In Joker's psychological take on the human mind, it is the attempt to depict the various influencers on an individual that gains much attention when looking at the film from a critical point of view. There is the city of Gotham- portrayed in its' two-faceted existence that boasts of glory and aristocracy in one hand and the poverty and helplessness in the other. A critical insight into the state of a city can be seen through Arthur Fleck's eyes. Then, there is the system- a system which cries at the sight of three apparently decent young men, but feigns ignorance and, at times, mocks the laymen who live amidst the squalor of the city. Then, there is the very theme, the complex human mind- a mind that at times, loses the sense of living, but later regains it in the most morbid of ways. What pushes a mentally-ill loner into further derangement- is it his psyche or the world around him? Joker is an ambitious effort to address that question.
One needn't look out for the usual comic book references and Easter eggs. Joker is no movie for that.
Joker is a never before attempted and never before seen take on a comic book character's origin story. The film subtly explores the condition of the human psyche, by using Arthur Fleck as the object of study, and the world around him that instigates his slow descent into chaos. Phillips sets the stage for Joaquin Phoenix to shine as the Joker, and the actor pulls it off well to deliver a performance worth remembering for the ages.Reviewer© rating: 5 stars
MPAA rating: R (for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images)
Runtime: 122 minutes
Reviewer-The Blog©
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