Phoenix is brilliant but at times it does feel like the director bit off more than he could chew.
Intense dramatic character study sounds great until a comedic director has to deliver a payoff. Kinda falls into one note territory
Regardless, Phoenix is superb. Just not convinced the rest of the movie kept up with him
Disagree. Few questionable editing, and a bit too long for my liking, but direction is top notch. There are some (very) dark comedy scenes too, perfectly shot, funnier than Hangover movies.
De Niro was surprisingly (after such nonsense as Dirty Granpa, etc.) very very good, as good as Phoenix I'd say. Beetz was also really convincing, especially in the twist revelation scene.
What I don't like was the portrayal of Thomas Wayne. He was too "in your face," need more subtlety there. So were the police duo. Not very bad, but quite lacking.
For movie of the year... we still have The Irishman. I heard only good things on it. So Joker probably won't be. De Niro was in both movies, it really is his year I guess.
What was top notch about the directing?
shareIt's gripping, intense, without relying to gimmicks (extreme close ups, rotating camera, dolly zoom, etc.) Yet still clear and easy to the eyes (no pretentious artsy artsy shots like blank stares for 30 seconds, awkward silence, etc.) It has a few artsy artsy dance scenes though, which I don't particularly like, but whatever.
Everything is subtle and conventional which makes it even harder to make. The explosive action scenes are brutal and fast. And then there're the very dark comedy scenes which I like very much.
The dancing didn’t really bother me except that it seemed to be the directors attempt at artistic complexity. Ultimately thought the hollow payoff was the shortcoming of the film
shareSo you think Phillips told Phoenix to dance like that?
And what's "artistic complexity"?
I don’t know what he told him. I’d guess he gave JP lots of room to riff and improvise. That doesn’t mean the director has to include every step. Phillips still decides how the film is cut.
By artistic complexity I’m talking about articulating complex human emotions in a variety of ways. It felt like Phillips defaulted to certain things repeatedly and eventually it became predictable. Slow motion fleck fu dancing drowned in sad strings happens more than a couple times. Great at first but by the end he had no where else creative to go