A Note about JOKER

Do I feel that Joaquin Phoenix is a most fascinating actor? Absolutely. He's long had that quality onscreen that makes him stand out and draw your attention.  For me, he did that years ago in the 1989 comedy, PARENTHOOD. He went by the name Leaf Phoenix in those days. Then came his work in TO DIE FOR with Nicole Kidman and Ron Howard's INVENTING THE ABBOTTS. His performance in GLADIATOR just about made my jaw drop down to my bucket of popcorn as I sat in the theater seat. Do not think I'm exaggerating when I tell you that I've seen him as Johnny Cash in WALK THE LINE at least half a dozen times. I love that performance. I saw Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in JOKER. His portrayal of that unhinged comic book-born character is stunning. It's stunning in a film I feel was bleak, pointless and the type of thing that was done way better and with more depth by Martin Scorsese in TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY.

Did you see it? Here's a trailer for JOKER starring Joaquin Phoenix and Robert DeNiro.

Here's the main thing I absolutely could not buy about that screenplay. This is no criticism at all of talented Zazie Beetz in the role. She did a fine job with the material and direction she was given.

But what young Black woman in New York City who was a responsible single working mother with a little girl would have gone out on a date with an unemployed white dude who looked like a psychiatric ward patient in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST?

He's gaunt, he's so thin that his backbone is protruding, he looks like he hasn't slept in a week, he's got a gun... AND ...he follows her to work one morning. Every Black woman I knew in New York City would've greeted him with pepper spray and then called the police. But in JOKER, this psycho-Caucasian man gives the lovely Black woman that "Gee, I wonder if he'll take me to the Olive Garden tonight" feeling.

What did you think about that romantic angle of JOKER? I just could not get into it.