It looks like Warner Brothers and DC’s boldest comic movie gamble yet may just pay off.
Joker, director Todd Phillips’ take on the iconic DC comic villain starring Joaquin Phoenix, just premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. Publications and fans have now registered their impressions online…and those impressions are mostly of rapturous praise.
In Joker, Joaquin Phoenix stars as a version of Clown Prince of Crime that is seemingly unrelated to any other incarnation in the Batman canon. His Arthur Fleck is a failed standup comedian in 1981 who is driven insane by the madness of Gotham city around him. While Joker is largely rumored to be a self-contained experience, it’s also the first entrant into “DC Black,” a series of films divorced from the main DC Extended Universe.
According to these early reviews, it sounds like the DC Black series has started off on the right foot.
Jim Vejvoda at IGN gives the movie the rare 10/10.
Mark Hughes of Forbes calls Joker no less than one of the best films of 2019.
Owen Gleiberman of Variety calls Joaquin Phoenix’s performance “astonishing.”
Pete Hammond of Deadline is equally effusive in his praise for Phoenix’s Joker portrayal.
David Ehrlich of Indiewire calls Joker the boldest superhero movie since The Dark Knight, but also describes the movie as potentially toxic, given the real world context in which it will arrive.
Stephanie Zacharek at Time has similar concerns.
The Twitter reaction was largely effusive with praise.
Joker premieres on October 4.
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Alec Bojalad is TV Editor at Den of Geek and TCA member. Read more of his stuff here. Follow him at his creatively-named Twitter handle @alecbojalad
