- with Shannon Griffiths
JOKER
5/5 STARS
Arguably the most anticipated release of the year and based upon the most recognisable comic-book villain of all time, The Joker is finally here to make you put on a happy face and experience a film like you’ve never done before.
Starring the incredible Joaquin Phoenix (truly one of the greatest actors of his generation) as the titular character in a stand-alone origin story not connected to any previous or existing films, without Batman and very much it’s own beautiful thing, Todd Philips (The Hangover) co-writes and directs an instant classic so good it creates discussion immediately. The film to beat in 2019, already rightfully being dubbed a masterpiece, three-time Oscar nominee Phoenix is almost a certainty to take him gold with a phenomenally committed performance so layered and complex it actually manages to hold a candle to what Heath Ledger did with the character eleven years ago in The Dark Knight.
Gotham City, 1981. Failed comedian Arthur Fleck works as a clown for hire in a guise to protect himself from the sad world around him. Isolated, bullied and slowly going insane, Gotham is in a state of terror with an uprising on the horizon. With a certain Mr. Wayne gunning for Mayor and corruption taking over the city; all it takes is one bad day…
With an excellent musical score, perfect supporting cast, (particularly Robert De Niro), continuous tense tone and appropriately finding room for humour, Joker is everything a film centred around a mass-murdering psychotic clown ought to be.
While some may complain it’s too dark and too violent, that’s what the character has always been and the film doesn’t try and make you sympathise with him. Both the protagonist and antagonist of his own story, Joaquin Phoenix reaches a new echelon of awe-inspiring talent. Always having been an incredible actor, those who weren’t familiar will not soon forget his name or this incredibly great film that is best summed up in one word – unforgettable.
Send in the clown.
AD ASTRA
5/5 STARS
Starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut who heads to space in search of his long lost father, Ad Astra (Latin for “through hardships to the stars”) is a visually stunning, exciting science-fiction space epic equal parts ambitious and profound. A highly entertaining film that demands to be seen on the big screen, it’s 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Interstellar with Pitt at full movie-star tilt.
Gifted with great direction from co-writer/director James Gray, the vastness space and the the bond between a parent and child make this one of 2019’s best.
Thirty years ago; H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) captained the voyage “Lima Project” into deep space in the hopes of discovering extraterrestrial life within our solar system. Disappearing 16 years into the mission and having since been assumed dead, Major Roy McBride (Pitt), the son of the famed astronaut is enlisted by the US Space Command to try and establish a communication with his father, whom they suddenly believe to be still alive when mysterious power surges traced back to the Lima Project begin to threaten the Earth and the entire solar system. Embarking on a daring and extremely dangerous mission to reach Neptune and uncover the truth about his missing father, Roy encounters all the perils of the unpredictable and unforgiving deep cold space as he prepares himself for the unknown…
Gorgeous looking, brilliantly acted and often times quite intense, the best space film in ages is unquestionably a slow-burn and likely won’t please anyone expecting an action film, but what it definitely is, is an edge of your seat excellent well put-together metaphor of the human experience tested where we don’t belong.
A journey from the Earth to the Moon, Mars to Neptune and Pitt from one great film to another, Ad Astra is unforgettably top-notch. And with Pitt finally joining his buddies Clooney and Damon with his own space-adventure, you really have to see it to believe it.
