It’s October, so here is what I have I planned for this month. There are two big things: the Chicago International Film Festival and my Horror Movie Tournament. Timing wise, these two things will happen around the same time, so yay for me making things harder on myself. Before either of those two start in a couple weeks, there are still films to watch. This month, I have at least one each week I was looking forward to. This week, that was the sequel to Joker. Do I start the month on positive note? On to the reviews!
I wasn’t a big fan of the first Joker film. It just seemed like Todd Phillips wanted to make a Batman movie without actually making a Batman film. So you take the most iconic comic villain of all time, and give him a sad origin story. It was bleak, and while I see why Phoenix won the Oscar, I don’t get how so many think it was one of the great films that year (Did we really need to see Bruce’s parents get killed again in this film?). That is a me problem though. Inevitably, Warner Brothers wanted a sequel when the first made $1 billion worldwide, and sequel we got. To up the ante, Lady Gaga was added as Harley Quinn, and I was on board again. Then, it was announced it would be a musical, and I was conflicted. I do love a musical, but nothing about Batman says musical. Shortly after that, it was shared there would only be one original song, making this a jukebox musical. My interest died a little. Still, I’m up for being proven wrong. (See my thoughts on Speak No Evil last month.)
Now that I’ve actually watched it, wow. Everything I was afraid of with the sequel was true, if not a little worse. Gaga was ok as Harley, but this is only Harley Quinn in name only. She is just a crazy person who bought into what “Joker” was saying. Only one song really added any life of purpose to the plot. The rest just felt like filler to make up for the maybe 20 minutes of plot overall. we will just get a a scene, then someone will start singing a song from the 70s, then the scene continues after. The song has no point, and if you are making a musical, the songs not having a point is kind of a problem. Much like how I thought Phillips wanted to make a Batman Scorsese film in the first one, I think he wanted to go completely in a different direction. He certainly did that. I just succeed in that effort. The only positive I can take out of this film is that Phillips said he has no interest in making a third. I would say that one would be an animated film, but this one starts with a Joker animated short.
I really wanted to like this more than I did. Th plot can be told in one sentence: Three daughters gather at their father’s apartment as he is in his final days. Those three daughters were played by Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne. They are all excellent in their roles as they play three very different characters. Coon’s Katie is I think the oldest one, and the controlling one. Olsen’s Christina is the middle daughter, the kind of spacey one, but the most normal of the three. Finally, Lyonne’s Rachel is the step daughter, the youngest, and the one who lives with their father. There are conflicts between the three, like Katie not wanting Rachel to smoke marijuana in the house. It takes Rachel’s boyfriend sticking up for her for Katie mainly to see that Rachel is more than a leech on their father. What follows is a really nice part of the three coming together. We never leave the apartment or the bench outside the building, so we are always in the story. The issue I had was the same I have for a lot of films: it was too long. By not leaving the “bubble” you leave the story to always needing to do something. We know their father is going to die by the end of the film. They even make a joke about how long he is holding on. I think we could cut 15 minutes out here or there (maybe one or two of Rachel’s scenes smoking outside) and the film would be a tight 90 minutes, and excellent. Overall, this is a really good character movie that is not going to excite anyone, but that isn’t why it’s here.
After Sundance back in January, I made list of the film shown there that I was interested in. I’ve seen 6 of the 8 on that list now. Of those 8, this was the top of the list. Early word from is was vague on purpose. All that was said was a group of friends play a game, and that is pretty much what the film is. It’s what the game is and how they play it that is a lot of fun. I’m going to do what others have been doing and not give away things. This is best watched not knowing what is coming. I will give some observations though. The game itself isn’t the interesting part. It’s what happens during it that is. Seeing this group of friends becoming less so as the evening unravels is interesting, especially when a ticking clock of sorts becomes an issue. What keeps this from getting too high on the list is the ending. When the second show drops, while interesting, it doesn’t make complete sense. Also, the fate of one of the characters is pretty cruel. I want to talk so much about this, so later this month I’ll have a spoiler post about it. For now, watch this on Netflix. I thought it was a lot of fun, and a great sci-fi thriller.
Not a lot this upcoming week. Our only wide releases are Saturday Night and Piece by Piece, and neither of those are probably going to make a lot in the box office. So things are going to look a lot like last week
- The Wild Robot
- Joker: Folie à Deux
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Transformers One
- Saturday Night
This week, it’s Saturday Night, House of Spoils, and Salem’s Lot. When I actually watch them is the question. Tigers have Game 2 against Cleveland on Monday, Game 3 on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, and 5 on Saturday, so that is making my schedule fun. I’m not mad about it though.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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