WE ARE ALL CLOWNS - Response to the response to Joker
Love it or hate it - or, as the prevailing sentiment ironically seems to be, think it was 'pretty good but not amazing' - Todd Philips' Joker seems like the most divisive film of the year. Obviously culturally so (and I'll examine this in more detail later) but also, bizarrely, politically. Before we get into all the stuff surrounding it, I do want to give my thoughts on the film itself. Its biggest strength by far is Joaquin Phoenix' performance. Arthur's high, childlike voice when he fantasises about being on Murray , the slow, deliberate, even beautiful movements of his post-murder dance, and of course the pained, choking laugh: all snippets of what may be the performance of a lifetime for Phoenix. The cinematography is pretty good, no complaints about shot composition, though there is some annoying shakycam in the fridge scene and a few other places. There are some nice parallels, like Arthur trudging up the stairs to his building at the beginning, then ...
