…over two films, Joker looks rather different from the edgy-origin story this was taken to be on initial release. ..the second film amplified the messaging but that corrosive message about the dangeous direction society was heading was here all along...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 12, 2024

It had me at the beginning and the last half hour or more is superb, but Phillips earnest, deliberate efforts to tie it into the DC Comics universe and heavy-handed stab at making it germane to socioeconomic issues hurt my suspension of disbelief.

| Oct 4, 2024

Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, is the worst kind of bad film. It’s a technically proficient and gorgeously presented falsehood. One that rejects responsibility as it strives to understand and empathize with the stereotypical white mass murderer.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 5, 2024

The environment and its atmosphere are a central aspect narratively, that is why Joker begins with a description of that city which, like New York from Taxi Driver, is represented as a putrid place with social violence and rising class resentment.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 27, 2024

Joker is what so many controversial films turn out to be: it’s fine — neither masterpiece nor trash fire, well-executed in some parts and poorly thought out in others.

| Jan 8, 2024

What the film wants to say — about mental illness or class divisions in society — is not as interesting as what it accidentally says about whiteness.

| Original Score: B | Oct 13, 2023

a clever gem of a movie that approaches its complex themes with extreme simplicity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 28, 2023

The joke in both cases is that the director both gets to disavow white male murderousness and claim credit for it.

| Aug 2, 2023

It's not a film about the Joker. It's a very realistic portrayal of someone (anyone!) who can become someone like him. And it's disturbingly brilliant!

| Original Score: A | Jul 24, 2023

"What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?" That’s the question asked by the titular character of Joker, a film that luxuriates in giving us the answer.

| Jul 20, 2023

Joker becomes the first movie based on comic books that I actually enjoy.

| Apr 25, 2023

The theatrical trailer for Joker -- tight, controlled, and intriguing -- suggested the best movie Martin Scorsese never made. The actual movie is a shallow and sophomoric effort that isn't about a raging bull as much as it's merely raging bulls***.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 22, 2023

What makes this world so successful is the message. ... Negativity, like the trash, builds up over time when people are too stubborn to see the other perspective and compromise. There's a social divide in Gotham City that feels very real.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2023

In the simply titled Joker, we get yet another version and this one is probably the most toxic of them all and not in a satisfying way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2022

As “Joker” slow-walks us towards its eventual maelstrom of iniquity, it never spells out how we should feel about its titular character.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 22, 2022

Joker is violent, raw, and hits closer to home than many are willing to admit.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Phoenix's preparation for and commitment to this role honours Ledger and his other predecessors, with an exhausted physicality, contortionist and Gollum-gaunt.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 12, 2022

The Joker is a powerful idea about accountability in our society but it's clear the script wasn't there. Luckily they were able to make it work with improv and interpretive dance.

| Original Score: B | Apr 12, 2022

It's less a genuinely transgressive approach than one closely modeled on the work of Martin Scorsese, and thus more an exercise in homage than rebellion. Even so, that won't stop people from aggrandizing it.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 23, 2022

Every decade has that one transcendent film that, as time progresses, ultimately becomes a classic for cinephiles. As the 2010s decade comes to a close, the one film that will undoubtedly age like a fine wine is Todd Phillips masterpiece, Joker.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 12, 2022