For my final week of July, I was stuck with a movie that neither Maxwell, nor I wanted to watch: Joker (2019)… I’m going to start off with my overall thoughts on this movie: It was actually pretty just okay. I was surprised by how much I didn’t hate it, but also it left me wanting more. I will only make the obvious comparison to a much better film, one that this was clearly trying to emanate with a well known character, and bring it into a more “modern” era: Taxi Driver (1976). It’s obviously not a one for one remake or attempt, but the similarities are glaringly obvious. Both are about a man who is being forgotten and living unseen in the world. Society and humanity as a whole has forgotten him, and cares not for his life.

Joker stars an actor that I am a pretty big fan of, Juaquin Phoenix, as the Joker. He is a solid method actor, and I think the effort that he put into this role is part of why I liked it more than I thought I would. Juaquin is a great method actor, and you can see his method in Joker. The shirtless scenes with how emaciated and gaunt he is are rather surprising and reminded me of another great film, The Machinist (2004) with Christian Bale.

Speaking of Taxi Driver, I thought it was neat that Robert De Niro is in Joker. His character was a typical late night host, who found a funny video of Joker and used it to elevate his own platform. Another piece of society that is disregarding Joker’s humanness. 

Overall, the story is meh to fine. I know this movie was massively popular upon its release, but I just thought it wasn’t for me. At the time it came out on home streaming, I remember booting it up one night, and turning it off halfway through. I am happy that I watched the whole thing through finally. It surpassed what little expectations I had of it, and slightly changed my ill-conceived perceptions of the movie that I had carried all these years.

There were some times that I sadly found myself relating to the main character. I am someone who grew up poor, a child of divorce, and I am definitely in the lower-middle class of society. I think that’s why this movie had the impact it did upon release, it appealed to a lot of the masses that exist in a world where they feel unseen. But the easy answer is: go to therapy. I know for a fact it helped me. And it probably would have helped Joker, let’s be real here. Instead he was stuck with his shitty job, shitty coworkers, shit mom, and his shit place in life. 

I really liked the ending overall, despite how dark it was. Spoiler alert, but in the end, Joker goes on Murray Franklin’s (Robert De Niro) show and shoots him in the head live on tv. It culminates with the rest of the disenfranchised people rioting in the streets, which enables Joker to escape from arrest.

There was a scene of Joker in the back of the cop car with his head out the window that was clearly an homage to The Dark Knight (2008). I couldn’t help but laugh. I feel they could have done something original or different, not a blatant call back to a much better film… But what do I know? I’ve never made a movie. 

I will say the set design in Joker was on point. The apartment he shared with his sick mother, the place he worked, just everything was great. It really felt like you were immersed in the world of Joker for the duration of the movie. This is a recurring issue I have with movies every now and again, the set is either so bland, or unimportant, or what have you, that I just find myself unable to become absorbed in the movie. The complete opposite occurred for me while watching Joker.

The costuming was great, especially Joker’s iconic orange and yellow suit. The makeup was done well, and a unique take on the classic Joker look, while still feeling like the character overall. Every actor, no matter how minor, played their part well in Joker also. His coworkers, while being extremely minor characters, all felt real and good in their roles.

The lighting was also great, moody, gritty, grimy. I found myself impressed by the framing of the scenes along with the lighting. It really set the tone for the decrepit world of Gotham City that the movie takes place in.

I also really enjoyed the spiralling of Joker’s mental health throughout the movie. There’s one point where he comes home late, and he tells his mother that he was on a date with the neighbor girl. At the time this scene took place, I thought to myself  “awww that’s cute she gave him a chance and saw the human in him.” Later, he has broken into her apartment after an extremely stressful day, and she is freaked out, and asks “Oh you’re the man from down the hall aren’t you?” as if she didn’t know him at all, and it hit me that the flashback montage we see from his perspective was all a lie that he was telling himself and then to his mother to try and feel something.

Overall, this movie was a difficult watch (of course it would be since it’s essentially Taxi Driver…) but I would still recommend it. I wouldn’t say it’s great, or deserved ALL the praise it received, but it’s a fine movie to watch at home and spend two hours of your evening on. 

-2.5 mallards /5

-Seann

A Carpool Karaoke Christmas (2024) is not what one would conventionally call a movie. First of all, it’s only 59 minutes. This is because it was made to be shown on television, and with commercial breaks, it ran right around 90 minutes. Second of all, in keeping with the Carpool Karaoke idea, there’s no plot or anything. I’ll get into what this “movie” actually portrays soon, but first I’ll discuss whether this can actually be considered a movie in the first place.

Let’s think about what a movie is, in the most basic (non-technical) terms. Movies consist of a script (sometimes), a plot (usually), actors (often), and a set (mostly). That’s a lot of wiggle room. Remove any of these elements and you can find examples of incredible filmmaking. For example, remove the script, and you have just a silent film, of which we have many impressive examples. Remove the plot and you have a documentary film, or a found-footage film, or a home movie (each of these also have their respective masterpieces). Remove the actors and you have outsider art, or if you want to stretch the definition, animation can also suffice here. Remove the set and you have on-location films, of which the Italian Neo-Realist movement (perhaps the most important movement in the history of World Cinema) are good examples. In conclusion, a “movie” is something that we can define as anything visual that has been recorded on a medium and which can be viewed by another person.

By our ever-widening definition, then, this is in fact a movie. If we want to be cynical (something that I’ll try not to be in this review, but will struggle with), then this is NOT a movie but rather an extended Range Rover commercial, as well as a PR opportunity for the singers involved, and a vehicle to further enhance our culture of gross and embarrassing celebrity worship. But we’ll just call it a movie for now.

So what actually happens in this movie? It’s really just a series of interviews in which Zane Lowe (who is apparently famous for something…?) confines his guests to his Range Rover and forces them to sing their songs with a few Christmas numbers mixed in here and there. Additionally, there are some scenes in which we step into the world of the artists and see what their lives are like or what they do when they’re not touring or in the studio…maybe. It’s difficult to determine how this would offer any sort of entertainment value to anyone outside of those celebrity-obsessed fans who would watch and consume, greedily, anything that these artists do.

Zane begins by interviewing and travelling through Missouri (or what is presented as Missouri) with current media darling and likely industry plant Chappell Roan. I’m going to try to keep my personal feelings about these artists and their music out of this review because it’s not really pertinent (though I’m sure you’ll be able to guess my feelings anyway, maybe without even reading if you know me well enough), and instead focus on the goals and aims of this movie. The goal, really, is to humanize these artists and let the viewers into their “world”, or rather, what the artists want their “world” to be like.

To say that the Chappell Roan section of this movie is performative would be an understatement. It is frustratingly and honestly rather insultingly heavy-handed and poorly executed. I actually liked her less after what she presented to be her real life, largely because it is so clearly inauthentic and manipulative. Of the three artists, Chappell Roan is far and away the one trying hardest to present a certain persona and aesthetic that is so obviously fake and untrue. They even go so far as to have her meet up with her “friends”, whom I’m convinced are paid actors and have never met her before in their lives. If my feelings about this are wrong, and she is being truthful, then this particular presentation did not do her any favors in trying to appear so.

Next is the Dua Lipa section, which was much more fun and while obviously scripted and choreographed, displayed her true self much more richly. Dua Lipa is significantly more authentic, personable, and understated, at least in this movie, which again may not accurately reflect how these women are in reality. She is much more jovial, inviting, and isn’t trying to appear a certain way or convince the audience that she is a certain type of person. She seems genuinely fun to hang out with, and able to laugh at herself. She seems like someone comfortable with who she is and is not trying to appeal to a certain fanbase or widen her general audience – just be there for those fans of hers who want to see her have fun singing along to the radio in a car.

Lady Gaga’s section rounds out the trio and is, unsurprisingly, the strangest of the three. She has a guest appearance from Brian Johnson (of AC/DC fame) for some reason, and together they duet the Christmas classic that gets everyone in the mood to open presents and spend time with family. Yes, I’m speaking of course of “Highway to Hell”. Following her performances in the car (in which she performs an odd assortment of songs, including her single from the 2018 version of A Star Is Born, where she starred alongside the dubious Bradley Cooper) she takes us to her LA beach house, in which she suspiciously has a full band dressed in tuxedos, who then perform Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Zane plays the electric guitar for them, and I sit and think to myself ‘is this really what people watch on TV these days?’

Apparently it is.

A Carpool Karaoke Christmas has a score of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDB and an astonishing score of 3.7 out of 5 on Letterboxd. As a “television special” it lacks a Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer score, but I would have to assume that it would be at least in the 80% range based on the other reviews. I honestly don’t see what this special is offering anyone, but it must have a very specific targeted audience who use Letterboxd and IMDB. For reference, here are some other films that have a Letterboxd rating of 3.7: 500 Days of Summer (2009), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009), Capote (2005), and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). This is madness. We’ve gone too far. This program was the literal definition of celebrityslop.

1.5 Mallards/5

-Maxwell