I dare you to anticipate Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips's JOKER (now with something that may or may not be a SPOILER)

Supposedly it’s intended to be a complete standalone, although with this new Batman movie on the way I’m wouldn’t be surprised if they tie it in to that somehow

If they make a sequel, I'll probably see it. I can imagine something with a young James Gordon as Joker's foil.

― JRN, Sunday, October 6, 2019 3:47 AM (nineteen minutes ago)

I just can’t see this version of Joker becoming a
genuine supervillain, which would require some basic level of organizational skill and ability to compel and command others to do crimes with/for him. This guy can barely function!

Remember when 1989 Joker just magically had a bunch of henchmen in matching outfits and gadgets and no one cared because it was a Batman movie?

Worse than bad, this movie is baggy and boring and its problems are not interesting. Joaquin’s performance is incredible as expected but fuck me running this movie could’ve been so much better OR a disaster, which at least would’ve been entertaining. Dropping the gun in the children’s hospital was hilarious tho

― flappy bird, Saturday, October 5, 2019 2:19 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

v otm

That’s the problem with grounding these characters in too much realism. Sooner or later the mind starts wondering about logistics or how Batman takes a leak in his suit or whatever

Self X-post

Dropping the gun in the children’s hospital was hilarious tho

― flappy bird, Saturday, October 5, 2019 2:19 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol I almost forgot about that. The movie could have used more of that absurdity. The only other scene I can think of that comes close is when he kills the gun guy in his apartment. It has something approaching the mix of tension, shock and humor that would have made the movie a million times better.

30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance is an act of violence.

Michael Moore OTM

Was wondering how the lose character I was hearing about could get anything together to do anything crime wise so interesting to see it's a.more widespread thought.
I think the traditional Joker had a history in crime before the disfiguring accident so he at least had some grounding. But on closer inspection not sure there would be much more depth to that than a set of gangster clichés being played with and developed on.

Yeah the guy can barely form a sentence at times, he hardly seems like a crime boss.

Then again, a grassroots movement forms around him based on what they thought his motives were, so maybe all he has to do is kill people, and his followers will fill in the blanks.

Anyway, all the "I'm still digesting it" reactions are aggravating. What's to digest. Arthur was abused and beat up and suffered some brain damage as a kid, imagined some Happy Together esque fantasies, killed people, became accidental leader of movement. Literally nothing else there.

Reactions from moviegoers, nobody itt

Cesar Romero ftw

Yeah the guy can barely form a sentence at times, he hardly seems like a crime boss.

― When I am afraid, I put my toast in you (Neanderthal)

god do we really need another donald trump thread here

No argument from me

Remember when 1989 Joker just magically had a bunch of henchmen in matching outfits and gadgets and no one cared because it was a Batman movie?

tbf this was terrible too

Danny DeVito magically being able to talk to penguins and magically having penguin pals with rocket launchers on their backs and an inexplicable underground ice palace was dope as heck though

Yes, there’s a disturbed clown in that mirror, but he’s not alone — we’re standing right there beside him.

https://pics.me.me/scott-aukerman-scottaukerman-follow-scottaukerman-theres-almost-something-chilling-about-24198437.png

Unbelievable--in order for a single man to see Joker alone, the local multiplex is now demanding that one must display to the ticket taker proof of possession of a hefty set of cock and balls!?!

— ℑ 𝔇𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢 𝔜𝔬𝔲 (@NickPinkerton) October 5, 2019

she wears short skirts
i’m the joker
she’s cheer captain and
i am the joker

if you took the joker's unhinged sadism and combined it with taylor's media and organizational savvy, you would really have something

yeah, you’d have taylor swift iirc

no way. her sadism is completely hinged.

actually, i'm not comfortable calling her sadistic even. she is probably a fine person.

better than the joker for sure

one is a fictitious character with numerous contradictory origin stories who seems to be constantly pushed into our cultural lens the other is taylor swift a popular musical act

i don't approve of what the joker does

i want to be clear

Thank you for the clarification. Some camps believed you supported the Joker

Imma let you finish, but Georg Büchner had the best loner-outcast-descends-into-violent-madness.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=woyzeck+1994

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRhgk6UHVk&t=267s

actually, i'm not comfortable calling her sadistic even. she is probably a fine person.

― treeship.

one of the fine people on both sides

treeship supports the joker, wow...really disappointing

Troubling

I got a text from my sister asking if I’d seen this yet. She loved it and said Phoenix is amazing - “Yeah I really thought he was excellent. Like I can’t remember the last time I watched a film and actually felt tense about what might happen next”.

For context, my sister is not an incel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j1T5xjwGJQ

phoenix is certainly captivating in this, but the idea that anything even remotely surprising happens is, well, cuet

the 20something that sold me popcorn last night was all "dude it's like a rollercoaster, you just won't be able to guess what comes next" and oh to be young again

That's not even supposed to be the allure of character study flicks to begin with.

I don’t think she was saying it was surprising, I took “tension about what might happen” next more to mean the sense of volatility Phoenix is able to convey making her genuinely nervous

I still have trouble believing this is good because Todd Philips but I’m a little more inclined to see it on a cheap day than I was before, I really do like JP lately

Oops shift that end quote a little to the right

I still think i "liked" it even if i never want to see it again

You Were Never Really Here was dope. Also very prescient about the Epstein/sex trafficking stuff

Some great points here worth considering. The unimpressed & scornful reviews only make fans more attached. The vibe I felt in that theater was real.

my hot bff with no twitter takes on the joker pic.twitter.com/XP50mUbf3Z

— talichka💕💕 (@itstalgirlyea) October 6, 2019

pic.twitter.com/cYHc1UVwMX

— talichka💕💕 (@itstalgirlyea) October 6, 2019

pic.twitter.com/7sCOtuAQPM

— talichka💕💕 (@itstalgirlyea) October 6, 2019

CHAOS REIGNS

i know nothing about this movie beyond the trailer but i hate the whole tortured anti-hero version of joker. not because of any actual social concerns but just because i'm a snob

I mean, that presupposes people are shitting on it for vanity only, though.

Takedowns always endear the fans to 'their' movies more.

Xpost

It's definitely not much of an incel movie. Arthur doesn't seem preoccupied with sex. His imagined romance with his neighbor is almost completely chaste. There's little indication that he resents women as such. He's not upset at the world because he thinks people see him as physically ugly. Virtually none of the incel subculture's obsessions are represented in this movie.

yeah it's much more of a forgotten & mocked white male movie

in a way the movie's thorough mediocrity is what makes it even more chaotic. because now you have all the hysterical pre-release criticism plus more measured and reasonable reviews, most of which rightly criticize the movie for being too ill-equipped to handle its subject matter. but it comes close enough to matter to many, many people.

He stalks a woman just because she smiles at him a bit, though. Then he enters her apartment, terrifies her, she asks him to leave, and then there's a weird cut and he sits down in his apartment and we hear sirens outside. So... There's a bit of resentment, I'd say.

Not sure that incel culture is just about loss of explicitly sexual power, tho I admit I can’t be bothered to do any serious research on it

Xpost agree.

Like none of us should agree with Arthur's actions, but incels generally don't go through the over-the-top physical and emotional birth from childhood that Fleck does, then immediately lose all seven medications he takes.

If we take the movie at face value, of the people we see him kill:

3 people on the subway that are literally kicking and beating him in a prone position (pulling the gun was probably all that was needed as opposed to shooting, and he outright executed the third guy)

Mom (smothered her, cos he found out she lied to him about her father and allowed her boyfriend to physically abuse him growing up, leading to permanent brain damage)

Co-worker (stabbed, got him fired from job by lying about source of gun, was trying to corner him about coos questioning him in subway murders)

Murray (cos he embarrassed him by showing his comedy footage and mocked him on live TV)

One was what he felt was self-defense, one was due to rage and feelings of betrayal, one was probably equal parts self-preservation plus revenge for getting him fired, one was revenge for being mocked.

Only two of them were even pre-meditated. He isn't even a spree killer, though we are lead to believe he becomes more random with his violence after he's locked up.

It's weird that audiences are more forgiving to Sweeney Todd, who gets revenge after pushed to insanity, but comes up with an abstract reason to start killing loads of innocent people first. Just cos they came to get a shave.

Which is where the withholding information bit comes in.

I have a hard time thinking he killed Sophie, because the detectives were already suspecting him and he stayed at home. No way they wouldn't have come by or arrested him the next day.

If anything I thought the film was taking a more critical eye against his followers, who invent the Joker's ethos based on a sliver of information on who he is, but when they get their moment and riot, seem to have no actual scruples. They're just mindlessly looting, blowing shit up, stealing ambulances,killing and terrorizing random people while wearing masks, but it's not about any actual movement. You wouldn't see Occupy fuckers doing this shit.

His followers are incels!