• Joker

    October 7, 2019 - By 

    Joker lands in cinemas this week – as heavy with hype as Batman’s toolbelt with gadgets. Not that gadgets and superheroism play a big part in this origin story, which shows the backstory of Batman’s arch-nemesis. Instead, following in the footsteps of the violent adaptations Logan and Deadpool, Joker is a bracingly bleak, gorgeously shot departure from the conventions of the comic book spin-off movie, anchored (if not dominated) by a magnetic central performance from Joaquin Phoenix. The film unfolds in a 1970s-feel Gotham City that’s politically and socially tearing itself apart. (The first evidence of unrest is mounds of uncollected…

  • You Were Never Really Here

    March 15, 2018 - By 

    If ever there was a filmmaker that could be referred to as uncompromising and exuding integrity, then Lynne Ramsey (We Need To Talk About Kevin) is certainly up there with the best of them. After The Lovely Bones was snatched away by Peter Jackson in 2009 and Jane Got A Gun resulted in her walking off the set due to producer interference, Ramsey’s steadfastness has paid off with this stunning trip of a film, that has the great Joaquin Phoenix in an awesomely committed role. One that may be his greatest yet. Joe (Phoenix) is a mentally scarred US military veteran,…

  • Her

    February 18, 2014 - By 

    Her opens with a close-up of its star, Joaquin Phoenix, speaking directly into the camera, but he is not addressing the audience. Nor is he speaking to another character on the other side of the camera. Instead he is talking to a machine. Her imagines a world only one step removed from the one we live in today, where the only conversations people have are with their phones or their computers, of a lonely, cellular existence where every human interaction is managed through a digital medium. The film takes place in a near-future Los Angeles and follows Theodore Twombly (Phoenix),…