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Hey, movie fans! It's your faithful Carpetbagger. |
You may be surprised to learn that "Joker" is only just coming out this weekend, because it feels like a film we've been debating pretty much since it was announced. Around a month ago, "Joker" startled the industry by scoring the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, but its critical legitimacy has been dented since then: This week's round of stateside reviews were considerably more measured, and sometimes outright harsh. |
To be sure, that shouldn't affect the box office all that much: "Joker" is already predicted to set an October moviegoing record. But I do wonder if the pushback will hurt the Oscar campaign for Joaquin Phoenix, who makes the sort of transformation voters go gaga for. Despite a growing reputation as his generation's best actor, Phoenix has never won an Academy Award, and while "Joker" offers him the rare mainstream vehicle on his résumé that could change all that, a lot will depend on how the film itself fares in the months to come. |
If you're not down to clown this weekend, at least you've got a few other intriguing options. Pedro Almodóvar directs Antonio Banderas in the quiet masterpiece "Pain and Glory," Natalie Portman plays an unraveling astronaut in "Lucy in the Sky," and Eddie Murphy stars in the crowd-pleasing comedy "Dolemite Is My Name," which Netflix is debuting in theaters before a streaming bow later this month. |
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