Movie Review: Joker

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

I have never been so broken, watching an anti-hero film but “Joker” has gotten me to really get into my head and retrieved some feelings, thoughts about the movie especially the character. Starring Joaquin Phoenix as the main character named Arthur Fleck, the movie follows a story of a man with a mental illness as he navigates his life, his role in the society and everything around him just falling into pieces. The chaos in his head and the messes he picked up along the way, “Joker” is a movie that once you watched it, you will never think of other comic movies the same way.

As someone who is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and had been to several counsellors for the past years, I totally understood what it felt like to be in Arthur’s shoes. He got the worse than me – he had an unstable psychological condition that causes him to laugh at inappropriate moments. I said, “inappropriate moments”, because he burst into laughter at wrong place, wrong time. Sadly, such mental illnesses and conditions are not tolerated. Even today, I doubt people have any care for such people like Arthur, unless you really have something good to contribute to the community. Arthur is not as fortunate as me, and thus I sympathised with him in all the moments he went through. With the capacity of evoking such thought-provoking insights, this credits to Phoenix whose strong and poignant performance elevated the whole movie. I would describe the performance as intriguing and at times, it was awkward as we see Arthur dances in public places and in the bathroom at such weird timing but still, it was beautifully intriguing and mesmerising to see the character descending into a confident, bold and frightening man. I noted that in the movie, especially when Arthur was dancing in the children hospital, it had this subtle tribute to Charlie Chaplin.

I could not help but to feel heartbroken by the circumstances Arthur was in – being bullied, lied and physically abused. I was frightened to what I saw especially when we, audience found out that his mother was committed to a psychiatric ward and she, as a mother, failed to prevent her son from the trauma he received. No child should ever be in such circumstances and this is where everything made sense – a child is morphed to what he is today because of his upbringing and the role models he is surrounded with in his childhood. In other words, the people around him failed Arthur miserably and that is when you find yourself struggled to accept the consequences, he does is not validly right, but you still wanted to support him. I also relate with Arthur in his psychological, laughing condition. Phoenix captured the pain of struggling, the control over his state very beautifully. It reminded me at times when I felt extremely broken and yet you must keep yourself steady because you know, this is no good.

I also enjoyed the technicality of the movie. It was beautifully filmed in the colours that reminded me a lot of the movies in the 1970s and 80s – brown, green and the hint of blue that accurately captured the mood of the story. The movie was also presented in a character study manner, so it is another newness and freshness that was intriguing to see in the anti-hero universe. The music scoring was artistically remarkable, and it really brought out the emotions, how we felt throughout the movie – sizzling with what is going on and painting the additional colours to the palette of the movie.

In summary, “Joker” is a movie that embarks you on a study of a man who is ruined by the circumstances he was in, as well as the portrait of a society degrading to a manic chaos that we now see in the news so often. It is real – humans are fucking up the society, people are forgetting how to be civil to one another and yet with such real message of the depictions of upheaval and the unseen people like Arthur, this is generating some social commentary because of the violence depicted in the movie. Personally, a good movie is when you present a story and it is remembered for something either good or bad. People start to talk about the movie and by people, I mean everyone is sharing their thoughts about a character, a storytelling and the overall. Known as controversy, it is a good thing because it shows the society that we aren’t talking much about something and this is what “Joker” is bringing us: a platform to realise that something is not right. It can be anything – system, world or government, rich or poor, any issue. In this case, we are not focusing on the people who are overlooked by society. These people need a voice. Joker/Arthur is a symbol – a voice for anyone who felt let down and needed to a stand.

We need more controversial movies like this to get people thinking.

Ratings: 8/10

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Movie Review: Heathers (1988)

I have many reviews that I could have posted here, but today is not the day. Here, I am going to talk about one of the controversial dark films back in the 1980s, Heathers. Starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater in this cult classic, the film follows a girl named Veronica whose possesses an intelligence and is unlike her clique peers who are consciously into the popularity and almost every bad quirk in the high school. While in the course of the film, Veronica met a guy named, J.D. and off they go, causing chaos which soon turned into something more sinister. Between the good and bad, the story mainly focuses on Veronica's decision - whether to be like the society or go for something darker like the counterpart.

I thought it was interesting to see such film, showing us the destructiveness of the society. Instead of a whole world, we are shown the characteristics of humans in a high school - colourful background and personalities mingled in one place, in a detrimental system. It pokes fun at how we operate and even till today, such behaviour is common. Looking at how we are living, some people may say that Heathers is a film that glamourises the violence, chaos and bad quirks to the new generation. They are convinced that such film creates an image - wrong depiction of ways that we should not be following and thus, discouraging us from watching. I remembered reading an article titled, I'm 24 and Just Watched 'Heathers' For the First Time - Yikes and I thought to myself, how underrated the core message was raised and misleading the article is saying. In this film, as we followed, we know that all these toxic behaviours are definitely immoral and to say that it is disgusting because of what is today and in the past, is definitely invalid. It is because of films like Heathers that gave us a true representation of a misled society and because of how they brought up on - the diet of following trends, everything that is deemed disturbing, makes these films interesting and be brought up on discussion.

What I am trying to say is that there should be more films like this to tell the new generations about what is wrong and what we should not be following. Films like this are why they are forever remembered because they bring a baggage to our table and let us have a discussion to what we have today. It is like people used to think that smoking is cool and advertisements were commonly placed to promote such culture. Today, it will be different story and Heathers is this story that allows us to know what needs to be done and changed. Aside from the amazing depiction of a fucked up place and people, I really enjoyed the acting from the cast. I could really feel them and relate with them, to the extent that I knew when is to be sympathised and how disappointing people really are (look at Veronica's parents).

In conclusion, I would recommend Heathers to anyone if you are up for any movie at this point of time. To be honest, if 13 Reasons Why is as bold and controversial like this, I doubt anyone who have any issue with the series. Heathers is sure on the right direction when it was released and till today, it is still a film that can be brought up to the table.

Ratings: 7/10

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It's a hard day

I haven't been on this blog for nearly half a year and I am sorry for not committing to what I have previously mentioned, that is to deliver more content that I missed out in 2018. I haven't done so for many reasons including I was focusing on my final year project and dealing with school work in my Year 3 Semester 1 of polytechnic.

I know this is not a content that you wished to see, but I feel as the owner of the blog, I need to get this off my chest and be transparent. Firstly, I haven't been feeling well lately. I feel sick in my mind that my overthinking has returned to haunt me and make me feel worthless. Previously, I have already been struggling with my mind. I had this for a long time and it is nearly three years since it all began with just asking a classmate out for a movie at the cinema. I never shared this story but since it is a long time ago, I shall just speak it. I asked my classmate out for a movie because I really liked him and I thought this was a way for me to become closer. However, little did I know, my happiness became a nightmare. I felt that I was belittled, and he was out to make me. I let my worries eat me like worms crawling on my bed that I had to changed this meeting into a friends' gathering. He did not joined, and everything was different after that. I never felt so horrible in my life.

Secondly, I had to deal with people who wanted a piece of me - my work, my knowledge. I had a friend in my class whom I knew since Year 1 and she has been leaching on my work to make herself better. I don't think she will see this blog post and I didn't mind because she has never been honest with my teammates and I. We worked together in this final year project where it is an individually graded work despite the teamwork. She managed to complete her portions of the final year project because she did on her own. If you ever encountered her, she would say that she did it independently but if you asked me in person, I will dismissed this claim. Her work was only completed because I helped her to resolve the bugs found on her codings. Her mistakes she made on the project almost caused us a big time because once a project software does not worked, it will be a chaos and I had to take my effort, my time to fix them. As one of the strongest in programming, I had to bear the responsibilities. I gave away my time to fix others including her portions and she went on overseas to China with her family. Sometimes, she would say that she has 'something on' or her mom does not permit her when in truth, this never occurred. Instead, she was finding excuses so that she could do her own stuff including to complete a marketing project when all of us were also having the same project that needs to be completed. I have always been unhappy about this especially when my friend never knew the struggles that the other teammates gone through, nor did she ever involved in any drama that went down over the course of the final year project between our project supervisor and us. She was never there. She never really helped others. She relied on people's hard work to help herself.

Thirdly, sometimes I wished I had not known too much. This is painful experience for me because I have always thought that as long as you have worked hard and achieved amazing results, you will have doors to open. This is never really the case because there are less passionate people who are also able to achieve same opportunities as me and this is done out of pity. No hard work, no passion and everything that embodies laziness, they can get to go for the same opportunities as me - that I have worked hard for the past three years. Talking to facilitators made it worse and it made me saw the ugly picture of how my school works. They would use the good students to make themselves great and afterwards, if your grades have dropped, they would just moved on and nurture other 'geniuses'. It was never fair to see how others who only started to work hard in Year 3 to achieve the same opportunities as me and it was also not fair to see them received various helps when they give back nothing. I hated it and resent this, to the point that I now viewed people as greed, dishonourable and cunning. I don't know whether is this a sign that my mind is playing tricks on me, or is it really the true colours of what I hate. I couldn't tell what is real anymore.. One of my facilitators even mentioned that maybe this is a sign of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but whether is it true or not, I know that there is definitely something wrong with my thinking.

I can continue on and on with my thoughts, but I feel that the more I typed, the more it becomes a permanent truth and this is not a correct representation of what the people I know are. I met and talked to them, even see them almost everyday. This cannot be right and I must continue to seek other ways to resolve this issue. If only there is way to correct myself (even my nail tearing and biting habit), I must commit and open to the idea of it. I cannot further go on with this disruptive behaviour that is making me feel isolated and distanced. Worst of all, it is decaying my positive thinking and what values that I was brought up on.

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Movie Review: Captain Marvel

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS.

It has been awhile since I wrote a review for the blog and I would like to apologise for the long wait because I was focusing on my school work and working hard to achieve the results I wanted which will be released this Friday. It is scary, I know, but there is nothing much I can do about it except to tell myself that I did put in lots of efforts. Furthermore, I was too stressed to come up with a review for The Favourite which I saw in the cinema last month and it was amazing especially the cast’s acting performances, and so many other reviews which I would probably have to cast one side since this is not the primary focus of today’s review.

So today, I would be reviewing on what I thought about Marvel’s new entry, Captain Marvel. I am sure that almost everyone has already caught the movie on cinemas some time ago since this movie was out for awhile now and with the latest trailer of Avengers’ End Game released last week, I am also certain that this review will be carefully read upon and provides a leading factor for whether to consider skipping or watching. In this case, you know that any Marvel movie that is out will surely need to be watched before anything since everything is all linked and this latest superhero’s story is one of them.

In my opinion, Captain Marvel is the start of the modern era for the Avengers. Setting primarily in the 1990s starring Brie Larson as the titular heroine in the story, we follow her journey as a Kree warrior who is under a commander, Yon-Rogg (portrayed by Jude Law) and how she went on a mission with the team up to the part where she was left stranded on Earth (called as Planet C-53 to the people back in Kree). As we follow her journey, we start to slowly learn about her previous life including the early part of the movie where we saw as her ‘nightmare’ – only to figure out it was more than a nightmare, it was part of something real that can help her find out her true identity.

Alongside the journey of the heroine, we also encountered familiar faces from S.H.I.E.L.D – Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), except they looked much more youthful thanks to digital de-aging visual effects technique employed. I was really impressed with the de-aging especially how they really resembled like their young selves back in the 90s and consider this is the first time Marvel gone full-fledged to keep this young look throughout the movie, I would say this is amazing. Aside from that, the flow of the story including the flashbacks were all proportionally used well throughout the movie and there wasn’t any abrupt moments except to feel inspired and the momentum of being gradually powerful – just as the heroine of the story.

The acting performances from the cast were great too. You felt like they were in their roles and when they delivered their lines, you just felt something from them. Captain Marvel is a movie that brings closer to home especially for the heroine whose actual name was Carol, a pilot for the US Air Force and was tragic because she went on a mission that almost ended her life. She saw the person she respected died in front of her whose thoughts are for a good cause and worst of all – she was brainwashed. As the movie progresses, you feel terrible for the character because of how much the truth just taken away from her and how much her potential was just kept away like that.

I could go on and on about the movie especially how much I really enjoyed the build up for Captain Marvel from the beginning to the end, every transformation shows much powerful she is as a heroine and as a human, so much potential in the character which I would love to see more of and a great job to the production for bringing us this needed (and refreshing) entry to the cinematic universe – a strong yet determined heroine and most importantly, a human and friend with compassion.

Ratings: 8/10

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