"Joker"

I understand that this movie was more about the mentally ill not having a voice in society, but there was nothing about this movie that made me want to root for Joker. Right off the bat we see he's not right in the head. And they double down that he sucks as a comedian. And did they really pull a Tyler Durden? In fact, I just realized that this is a remake of Fight Club.

As you can see, I've spent my time over in Marvel Land, and I need to dip my toes in DC. When a Joker movie was announced, I didn't think they were serious. It sounds like a direct-to-video sort of movie, or one that flopped at the box office. I honestly don't understand the fascination of a villain-led movie. In a film like this, you would expect to have a motive for doing the crimes he commits. There is one, just not a good one. He's not right in the head, Gotham City sucks, Thomas Wayne is a tool. He rose to be the Clown Prince of Crime by accident all because he killed three guys on the subway.

Until Arthur finds the adoption papers, I actually thought that Batman and the Joker would be stepbrothers if Thomas was really his father. That would've added to the number of struggles Batman faces as the Caped Crusader. He had to fight his brother who's lost his way. Way to get my hopes up. And they tried to paint Alfred as some kind of jerk when Arthur confronts Bruce just so we can have sympathy towards Arthur. 

If Penny was mentally ill, why was she out of the asylum? Why was she allowed to adopt a child with her state of mind? If Arthur was ill, why was he out of the asylum? Isn't it a red flag to have two mentally ill patients living together?

I can't believe that the film would pull a Tyler Durden with Zazie Beetz. The difference is that she is real, but Arthur imagined having a relationship with her. It really wasn't something that wowed me. If anything, it pissed me off. 

The more I think about it, I begin to understand how society has failed the people it's supposed to serve. Arthur struggles to hold a job. The social services cut their funding, so he couldn't get his medication. He imagines a relationship with a girl down the hall. Some of the problems portrayed in the film reflect our current issues today. Our health care is under attack. Hundreds of workers are without jobs, and many of them turn to crime to support themselves and others they care about. At that point, like Arthur says, they have nothing to lose. Nothing can hurt them at this point.

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Released On: October 10, 2019
Rating: R
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
Director: Todd Phillips
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%
IMDb Score: 8.6/10

Awards
Golden Globe Awards

• Best Motion Picture Drama - Nominated
• Best Actor Motion Picture Drama Joaquin Phoenix - Winner
• Best Director Todd Phillips - Nominated
• Best Original Score Hildur Guðnadóttir - Winner

Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Nominated
• Best Actor Joaquin Phoenix - Winner
• Best Director Todd Phillips - Nominated
• Best Adapted Screenplay Todd Phillips & Scott Silver - Nominated
• Best Cinematography Lawrence Sher - Nominated
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling Nicki Ledermann & Kay Georgiou - Nominated
• Best Costume Design Mark Bridges - Nominated
• Best Film Editing Jeff Groth - Nominated
• Best Original Score Hildur Guðnadóttir - Winner
• Best Sound Editing Alan Robert Murray - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic & Tod Maitland - Nominated

Golden Raspberry Awards

• Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "Joker".)

Videos
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Joker in Totally Not Controversial Minutes
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers | Joker
How It Should Have Ended - How Joker Should Have Ended
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers | The Oscars (2020)
How It Should Have Ended - The Avengers - Best Picture Summary 2020
Epic Rap Battles of History - The Joker vs. Pennywise
Saturday Night Live - Grouch (Joker Parody)

"1917"

Before we begin, check out my post on 1917 on my other blog, Before I Go See It.
Now, on with the show.

While this isn't exactly a one-shot movie (sorry, "a movie with no cuts"), it's still an interesting movie to see. "Time is the enemy" should have been a clue that this film lacks cuts, and Director Sam Mendes explains, in an interview with CinemaBlend, that it gives the audience a chance to feel the tension, in real time, alongside the characters every step of the way, and it works, and in a way, it's like a claustrophobic movie because we follow the characters through bombed-out trenches, abandoned bunkers, and decimated cities.
I think somewhere in there was that the one-shot technique allows you to see the horrors of war, but if you see war movies regularly, or are treated to intense footage in high school and college, there really isn't anything new that we haven't seen because you see the trenches, you see dead horses in No Man's Land, you see decaying bodies strung out in a field, you see tanks flipped over, you witness a pile of cannon shells, you crawl through a river with bodies floating in it.
I said, in my BIGSI blog, that I wanted a twist ending in a movie like this, and I do get it from a certain point of view, and when William meats Mark Strong, Strong tells him to make sure there are witnesses because "some men just like to fight," which made me think that they are going to pull a Paths of Glory and have Benedict Cumberbatch's character ignore the general's orders, but I was wrong when Benny calls off the second wave of attack, but the movie does pull a Saving Private Ryan and has the brother of Tom Blake still alive after Tom was killed, but I guess that's the horror of war, but it was a stupid horror.
There is one more thing that isn't talked about in this movie, and it's its symmetry: the story begins with Will sleeping against a tree, then he and Tom walk into a trench to receive the message to give to Colonel Mackenzie, they walk through the front lines to a German bunker, where they experience a near-fatal incident involving a rat and a tripwire, they cross a cherry orchard to a farm with a fresh supply of milk, Will continues with his journey to the river up to a large building where he shoots an enemy soldier, the soldier firing results in Will falling down the stairs, cut to ten seconds of black, the film starts working its way back, from the building goes to a shelter where a frightened woman is hiding out with a baby, Will gives them the milk, he is instructed to follow the river, and he has another near-fatal incident where he falls over a waterfall, along the river, he finds cherry blossoms from nearby trees, he approaches the trenches and delivers the messages, and it ends with Will exiting the trench and sitting against a tree.
All in all, it's a beautiful film worth watching, and it will be a film to talk about for filmmakers to come.

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I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: January 10, 2020
Rating: R
Stars: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Claire Duburcq, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch
Director: Sam Mendes
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 8.5/10

Awards
Golden Globe Awards

• Best Motion Picture Drama - Winner
• Best Director Sam Mendes - Winner
• Best Original Score Thomas Newman - Nominated

Academy Awards

• Best Picture - Nominated
• Best Director Sam Mendes - Nominated
• Best Original Screenplay Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns - Nominated
• Best Original Score Thomas Newman - Nominated
• Best Cinematography Roger Deakins - Winner
• Best Makeup & Hairstyling Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis & Rebecca Cole - Nominated
• Best Production Design Dennis Gassner & Lee Sandales - Nominated
• Best Sound Editing Oliver Tarney & Rachael Tate - Nominated
• Best Sound Mixing Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson - Winner
• Best Visual Effects Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler & Dominic Tuohy - Winner

(Click here to view more awards for "1917".)

"Bombshell" (2019)

With the humor of I, Tonya and the wit of The Big Short, Bombshell comes barreling in with another dark chapter in American history, one that we all know too well. And that is where I think the problem is.
First of all, I want to point out that actions depicted in the movie are appalling, and the stories this movie is based on are harsh and frightening. As a man, I am ashamed to be associated with monsters like Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly. This makes me want to retreat into my home and hide until I die.
But the problem, I think, is that this story is too soon. I'm a man, so of course a man would say that. I don't mean that it is too soon in terms of the Me Too movement. I mean it is too soon in terms that much of the entertainment industry and other professions around the world were hit with confirmations of sexual allegations. In the U.S. alone, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Jeremy Piven, Casey Affleck, Danny Masterson, Louis C. K., Neil deGrasse Tyson, Morgan Freeman, R. Kelly, Tom Brokaw, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, Tavis Smiley, Mario Batali. John Lasseter, Brett Ratner, Steven Seagal, Oliver Stone, Senator Al Franken, President Donald Trump, and many more were accused and/or convicted of some form of sexual harassment and assault. It makes me afraid of being able to say "hi" to a woman.
The point I'm making is that the wound is still fresh. I guess our ego is hurt as a species because as a whole, we men never really think how bad the situation is. When Bill Cosby came down the allegations, it's an example of one rotten apple. Then the news broke out about Harvey Weinstein, and we are introduced to the rotten bunch. The few remaining men, that haven't yet been accused, have agreed that Time's Up. I honestly think that time should have been up a long time ago. But during all this we gentleman, who knew better than to force women on their knees and blow us, fear which one of us is next. Who, especially among the supporters of Me Too and Time's Up, is still lurking in the shadows still grabbing women inappropriately?
With that aside, let's get back to the movie. While the movie isn't anything new now, it is without a doubt going to be a shock in the future, and I hope many more films will follow in its footsteps. I could tell it was going for shock value, like All the President's Men in 1976. In a way, this film is our generation's All the President's Men.
The one problem I did have was that the trailer made it seem like the three women, Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, and Kayla Pospisil, were teaming up to bringing down Roger Ailes, but they don't really spend any time together. Their one scene together was in the elevator when Gretchen was getting fired and Kayla was getting harassed. The three women did interact individually, Megyn and Kayla, Kayla and Gretchen, and...actually Gretchen and Megyn don't interact at all. I understand it's more along the lines that their individual stories intertwine together at Fox News, but I was convinced that this was a team-up movie.
I don't mean to play the man card once again, but John Lithgow was unfairly snubbed playing a fat pervert with a serious case of paranoia. But maybe it's probably for the best that he is spared from being awarded for playing a sociopath (Attn: Joaquin Phoenix, Adam Driver, Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Brad Pitt).

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I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: December 13, 2019
Rating: R
Stars: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney
Director: Jay Roach
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
IMDb Score: 6.8/10

Awards

Golden Globe Awards

• Best Actress Motion Picture Drama Charlize Theron - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture Margot Robbie - Nominated 

Academy Awards

• Best Actress Charlize Theron - Nominated 
• Best Supporting Actress Margot Robbie - Nominated 
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan & Vivian Baker - Winner 

(Click here to view more awards for "Bombshell".)

"The Lighthouse" (2019)

Honestly, I don't remember much from this film except Robert Pattinson jacking off to a wooden siren while imagining actually f*cking the siren. Oh, and Willem Dafoe standing naked at something in the light and chanting something in old English. And R. Patts slowly descending into madness drinking on the job and killing the sacred the seagull. Then R. Patts killing Dafoe, who was a Kraken for a second (?), sees something in the light that made him scream and fall down the stairs and get eaten alive by the seagulls. I guess that's it.
When I found out it was directed by the guy who made The VVitch, it made sense how f*cked up this movie was. Whatever it was, it was beautifully shot in black and white with a tiny aspect ratio. It resembled an old film. The sound design, which was snubbed this year, made feel like your watching an old film. The dialogue was something that isn't heard in mainstream movies anymore unless you watch PBS, like I do. Both Pattinson and Dafoe were unfairly snubbed for their performances.
The only problem I had, which probably couldn't be helped, is that it was so dark all the time. You really couldn't see what R. Patts was looking at out at sea. Also, I think it would've helped to have more information about the situation and the mystery behind the titular lighthouse. I think it requires you to read the short story, by Edgar Allen Poe, to understand it better before seeing the movie.

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I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: October 18, 2019
Rating: R
Stars: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson
Director: Robert Eggers
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.8/10

Awards
Academy Awards

• Best Cinematography Jarin Baschke - Nominated 

(Click here to vuew more awards for "The Lighthouse".)

The 92nd Academy Award Nominees

For your Oscar Reading party, here are some of this year's nominees that I have reviewed. Enjoy.

Ford v. Ferrari 

The Irishman 

Jojo Rabbit

Marriage Story

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 

Missing Link

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Klaus

Frozen II

Knives Out

Little Women

Ad Astra
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
I Lost My Body
The Lighthouse
Bombshell

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"I Lost My Body"

This trippy film somehow rather beautiful and hopeful as we watch a severed hand crawl its way back to its owner. The owner, Naoufel, is a young boy who wants to change his destiny. Orphaned at young age, he struggles to figure out his life. It changes when he meets a young woman through an intercom after he was late delivering her pizza.
The reason for the name of the title is troubling to understand, but I think the hand is the protagonist in this story. The movie is chopped up, no pun intended, with scenes of the hand crawling back mixed with memories of its past. You think it's about Naoufel's memories as he remembers his deceased parents and how he recorded everything in sight. But I think it's more about his hand remembering the events. It even sits down at one point to listen to a blind man play the piano because it remembers playing the piano for Naoufel.
The physical message is obvious, but there is something more metaphorical. We watch Naoufel try to win the heart of the girl he met through the intercom by showing up at the library where she worked, working for her ailing uncle, and building an igloo on the roof of an empty high rise. When she calls him a fraud. Having lost her, it seems like a large portion of his body was lost. He's the hand that lost his body. But after hearing an old recording he made, that dictates his parents' death in a car accident, he seems to regain a grasp on life. He still hasn't figured out what he wanted to do, but for now, he knows it will be okay. The last scene we see is Gabrielle, the girl he likes, follow Naoufel's tracks to the wooden igloo and to the rooftop ledge where we fear he has jumped. He did...to the crane across the street. He asked Gabrielle if she ever taken a leap of faith without thinking. It was something he believed destiny plays a part in. Now, he's taken the physical leap. I think it represents that he now has a more positive outlook on life. It's unknown whether if he and Gabrielle would ever get together, but we know for sure that they will be okay.

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I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: November 6, 2019
Rating: TV-MA
Stars: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assumçao, Alphonse Arfi, Hichem Mesbath, Myriam Loucif, Bellemine Abdelmalek, Nicole Favart, Céline Ronte, (English Dubbing: Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat, George Wendt, Tucker Chandler, Anouar H. Smaine, Sarah Lynn Dawson, Jonny Mars, Barbara Goodson, Tara Sands)
Director: Jérémy Clapin
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 7.6/10

Awards
Academy Awards

• Best Animated Feature - Nominated

(Click here to view more awards for "I Lost My Body".)

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

Uh, can I get a large platter of fuqcue with a side of vadersmüld and glass of blue milk, please? And can I get that in a doggy bag so I can light it on Disney's front porch? Oh, wait! That's this movie. Never-f*cking-mind.
The epic conclusion to the Skywalker Saga comes crashing down like the apparent remains of Death Star II on that one planet with the warthog ponies. Can anyone smell the Endgame fumes from this obviously microwaved plotline? Because this is the exact plot of Avengers: Endgame. The remaining ragtag of Resistance fighters search for an jewel to stop an ancient evil ruler and his CGI army from ruling the galaxy. Along the way, Poe and Finn clash as they struggle with their new promotions in leadership, and Rey searches for clues to end her quest she began so long ago. Then they end it all with Palpatine saying, "I am the Sith!," and Rey saying, "And I am the Jedi!" I'm surprised Star-Lord didn't show up with a sh*tty track tape to finish this movie.
Who in the f*ck is batsh*t crazy enough to get freaky with the Emperor? Especially when he's clearly thousands of years old and filled with batsh*t craziness? My mother said that Rey's parents could be conceived by the midi-chlorians. I'm now reminded of Palpatine's talk with Anakin, in Revenge of the Sith. He said Darth Pleigus could manipulate the midi-chlorians to create life. Palpatine was clearly his apprentice, so he learned how to do such a thing and impregnated some poor woman who was forced to do this. But if that were so, then the entire Darth Vader storyline is completely useless. Why search for a new apprentice when he can just conjure up an heir? Darth Maul would have been spared, Count Dooku would be a respected Jedi, and Anakin would watch his children grow.
We learn that Poe was a spice runner before joining the Resistance. That explains a lot about the shadiness I didn't like about him. All those moves he did with Millennium Falcon is also a dead giveaway. In fact, I believe Han got away with something like that in Solo. The infamous Kessel Run. Another scruffy looking nerf herder thing is that Chewie would know better than to easily give in to First Order stormtroopers. My guess is, he turned himself in so that he can find some Intel on the inscription on the dagger they found. Since C-3PO was unwilling to transcribe the message, what was there to do? You can totally see the bind he was in.
And by the way, it's against 3PO's programming to transcribe the Sith language, are you sh*tting me? It's also against his programming to impersonate a deity, but guess what? He's a f*cking deity through Luke's guidance. In this case, he needed a hotel lobotomy in order to comply. Maybe Rey should have influenced him to comply. My sister suggested that he should have just entered the coordinates himself, so that he isn't actually saying it.
I don't care Kylo Ren finally turned good. He's still a whiny brat. When he pulled that Wolverine move to save Rey, does that mean he lives in her now? Would evil Rey with the folding lightsaber still happen? And ha, Harrison Ford,  they tricked you into playing Han again.
The biggest problem I have with these movies is how the Force works. Many characters display tricks never before seen on the silver screen. But I think the culprit is the how dumb the Jedi really were. There are abilities in the Dark Side where the Jedi consider it unnatural? Like what? Stopping a blaster bolt and changing its direction? Flying through space like somehow you're not dead? Chatting with someone across the galaxy? Being able to hand something over to someone across the galaxy? Transferring their strength to heal someone? Okay, maybe that one. It's frustrating to watch these new tricks when no one has done it before. I should be amazed, but I'm not. I'm rather annoyed.
The Skywalker Saga may be over, but they will definitely come back to this storyline in the next trilogy. Rey isn't Skywalker blood, so it won't be another Skywalker family drama. But there will be a copycat Kylo Ren who will stop at nothing to find Luke and Leia's lightsabers to rule the galaxy with. Just wait. It'll happen.

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I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Released On: December 20, 2019
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams
Director: J.J. Abrams 
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%
IMDb Score: 6.9/10

Awards
Academy Awards

• Best Original Score John Williams - Nominated 
• Best Sound Editing Matthew Wood & David Acord - Nominated 
• Best Visual Effects Roger Guyett - Nominated 

(Click here to view more awards for "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker".)

Videos
How It Should Have Ended - The Rise of Skywalker - HISHE Reviews (SPOILERS)
WatchMojo - Top 10 Unanswered Questions in The Rise of Skywalker
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in Force Minutes
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
How It Should Have Ended - How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended