Aziz24

Rating: 8.5/10 Watched on Jan. 19, 2025 (First Watch) Format: regular theater

A brave story that reveals the truth mixed with a dramatic story told through a family of four who stumble upon this controlled system that forces them to change their way of living and turns their life upside down.

The pace of the first hour leaves no room for any boredom which unfortunately changes all after a certain event in the story that turns it into a slow paced and at most times boring story that the heaviness is felt. But, it got it self up right at the end which concluded the film with an amazing ending.

The direction of this film supports the story very much from the color grading to the production design that gives that feeling of being trapped similar to how the characters are feeling. It's shot in very limited locations which mostly is in the family's apartment...and that really left an impression for the viewer.

• Rating is 6.5/10
• Watched on Sept. 30 2024 @ Fan First Premiere (First Watch)
• Format: (Digital) IMAX

Todd Phillips repeats exactly what he did to The Hangover trilogy with Joker 2. The director goes on to make a sequel that is unfortunately empty and has no character development.

Phillips outdone himself in directing a film that has an outstanding cinematography/visuals that portrays every feeling and emotion that it wants to tell and express. BUT, he failed in creating an engaging storyline. From a part one to a part two, usually the characters of the film change. Their arc either declines or inclines. Their personalities change. Events/obstacles come along their way to shift their lives. OR new character/s enter their life which opens the door for more interesting events to come along their way resulting in a "Folie à Deux". In this film, Joker's/Arthur Fleck's life doesn't seem to change much as Gaga's character, Lee, is added. Instead, the film keeps repeating its events by REvisiting the past (the first Joker film) or reacting some of its scenes. It also keeps coming back and forth to the same locations and events within this film itself. Resulting in an overall dull film that is ONLY visually entertaining.

This film introduces two major characters within the Gotham world, Harvey Dent, who is played terribly by Harry Lawtey and written even worse. By the end of the film, I felt like he was useless and is taken advantage of because of his 'name' within the comic books fandom. Same goes to Lady Gaga's Lee that simply felt like it wasn't even in this film.

I enjoyed how this film uses music/songs to showcase that it's an ESCAPE for our inner selves. But, the song choices weren't on point. On the other hand, their performance was well done by Gaga or Joaquin Phoenix and Lawrence Sher's cinematography skills.

• Watched at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sep. 14th, 2024 (First Watch)
• Format: Regular theatre
• Rating: 8/10

Im surprised how this film is able to be so many things at the same time. Comedy, drama, action, thriller, self-exploration, AND MUSICAL. It balances each genre and gives it enough time in a way that won't make it seem too much.

Each acting performance in this film is outstanding specifically Zoe Saldana in the first half of the film and Karla Sofía Gascón in the second half of the film who played two roles in this film perfectly. Unfortunately, everything related to Selena Gomez in terms of her acting performance and character needed more effort to be put in. Very weak character that was just there as a filler to make things more complicated for the main protagonist and the events of the story.

Though musicals aren't my thing, this film dealt with that part in such a unique way that made each song performance creative in terms of the directing and lyrics. Two songs that really grabbed my attention is one that touched on a political aspect in Mexico that had such a creative and unique direction to it. The other one really proved Zoe Saldana's performance as it was great with all of the dark and minimum lighting that it had.