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The flip side of the movie is part courtroom drama, part character study, but the focus and tension from the original are missing here. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, Joker: Folie a Deux is a poor sequel that fails to capture the greatness of the original and does a lackluster job of blazing its own path.
Parasite is the best movie of the year, and Joker is a close second. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Academy resisting Quentin Tarantino’s exquisite plunge into 1969 Hollywood. The movie is catnip for voters. Plus, Parasite is destined to get its due in other categories. The screenplay for Parasite is one of the greatest original scripts in recent memory. It has a dazzling, Shakespearean depth. Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay is flawed (especially that unacceptable ending, which flirts with canceling out the significance of everything that leads up to it), but the vision he expressed on the page merits recognition.
Todd Phillips, the co-writer and director of Road Trip, Old School, and the Hangover trilogy, is the mastermind behind Joker, which is by far the greatest comic book movie ever made. And it’s a comic book movie in the purest possible sense because it perfectly replicates the experience of reading comics as a kid — specifically Batman comics involving the Joker. Joker is an anti-hero horror comedy. It’s genuinely funny and completely unsettling. Think Re-Animator, Get Out, or Very Bad Things — but better. Much better.
In an age where cell phones are our constant companions, where an operating system can respond to voice-activated prompts and mobile Internet access provides us with instant information at any given moment, our relationships with technology and with each other are rapidly evolving. Writer-director Spike Jonze’s latest film, “Her,” an original and surprisingly emotional story about a lonely writer who develops feelings for his cell phone operating system, serves as a commentary on our society’s increasing reliance on technology.
“The Master” was at the center of the Academy Awards race, having received a best actor nomination for its star, Joaquin Phoenix, and supporting actor nods for co-stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. While the performances are unquestionably fine, it’s hard to get behind the movie as a whole because of its wandering plot and unlikable characters.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, “The Master,” is his most consciously esoteric movie to date. As the scenes add up, you have a growing suspicion that you’re missing something. Or that something is missing. I’m still not completely sure which is the case. All I can say is that the movie invokes the same experience as a queasy-strange nightmare that gradually churns to a haunting, perplexing conclusion.