Quarantine Day 9

DAY 9:  HEISTS, LASERBLASTS AND ANARCHY

THE HOT ROCK (1972)
Every 70s movie should have George Segal in it. He is just so cool in this. You can tell the DNA of this is in Soderbergh's Ocean trilogy. In fact, I am certain Soderbergh watches this movie at least once a year as the tone of it is all over his filmography. Enormously entertaining caper.

B+

OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001)

Brad Pitt eats. A lot.
Bar nuts, cheesburger, chewing gum, cotton candy, ice cream, lollipop, nachos and shrimp cocktails.

Soderbergh made a conscious decision to not have any violence in the picture. The word he would use in the DVD commentary is 'elegant'. The result is a movie with tons of repeat value.
A-

NIGHTBEAST (1982)
A rubber headed monster, no-budget gore effects, and a surreal sex scene. Don Dohler's tribute to rubber suit monster movies of the 50s delivers. Features a soundtrack from a then teenage J.J. Abrams.

B

JOKER (2019)
A movie where you have no stakes in it that lets you down is a lot less heartbreaking than the one you do have stakes in.

The mythos behind The Joker is just as important to me as The Batman mythos. It's the archetype that so many of my favorite villains link back to.

When Nolan was handed the reigns in 2004, he was then known as the guy who did Memento. Even Burton was known as the creator of Pee Wee and Beetlejuice before he took on the dark knight. Both directors brought a specific style. Burton with his German expressionism. Nolan with a neo-noir style that transformed into a Michael Mann-esque style by the time he did The Dark Knight. Yet the success of Nolan's style lay in the script staying true to the style the director wants to create.

You can tell that Todd Phillips believes with every bone in his body that he is making art here. You don't need moody strings to tell me this but you might just as well throw that on top of it.
You see it in the way he mimics a color pallette. The desperation in replicating a dingy style.

The performance of Joaquin is where the heartbreak comes in. Todd Phillips isn't really known for anything outside of his Hangover movies. Phoenix on the other hand create two of the best performances of the 10's: Freddie Quell in The Master and Joe in You Were Never Really Here. The latter being a vastly superior study in mental instability. His Theodore Twombly in Her was believable. His work in Inherent Vice as Doc Sportello was fascinating to watch. Even if that was a lesser PTA effort. If an actor ever deserved an MCP award this decade, it would be Joaquin Phoenix. Which brings us to his portrayal of The Joker. Or more specifically, Arthur Fleck. There's really only three times he is called The Joker. The mission statement Phillips had with the movie was to show one of these villains in the real world. Again, something that has already been done with better results (see: Watchmen). Shave the final 5 minutes from the movie and this movie could have been about anyone with mental instability. We don't really come to an recognizable moment from the Batman mythos until the ending.


Controversy abounded upon its release. Saying it would invoke riots and rile up an already incendiary incel culture. Instead of the feared razor sharp teeth so many high profile reviewers warned of, this movie attempts to gum you to death. There's nothing troubling or ambiguous about this movie. It's a centrist scold with a straightforward narrative. It isn't really saying he's justified in his mayhem. But it doesn't really condemn him. It ends up planting its flag right in the middle with a "who's to say?" answer. The kind of response from someone who wants to seem interesting but is ultimately hollow.

This is 90 minutes of George Costanza saying "We're living in a society!"

D