We’re essentially 3 months out from director Todd Phillips’ JOKER starring Joaquin Phoenix hitting theaters on October 4, 2019, but it’s about to make its debut in September at the Toronto International Film Festival.
And it’s already receiving high praise from Cameron Bailey, the co-head and artistic director of the TIFF. Check this out (via THE TORONTO SUN)…
First of all it’s terrific. So it should play on our largest stage. But it’s a really original take on comic book movies and on the Joker character in particular. It’s not based on an existing story, it has one of the greatest actors in modern cinema, Joaquin Phoenix, in the lead, and Robert De Niro is in it as well, one of the best actors that has ever lived. But it has an interesting tone and approach to it. It’s set in the late ’70s, early ’80s and it feels like it was made then. It’s gritty in its look. It has references to Martin Scorsese’s filmmaking and it feels like a cinematic achievement on a high level. Although it’s working with very populist material, it has great ambition. That’s why it’s a Gala.
Yep, that’s certainly high praise.
Look, I know A LOT about this movie and it’s not going to be for everyone. Hell, I don’t know if it’s going to be for me — but I’m going to wait until I actually see it before I judge it.
With that said, I applaud Warner Bros. for getting out of the comic book movie comfort zone and doing something different with the genre.
We all shall see — and then “judge the hell out of it” as the great Michael Uslan recently told me — when JOKER hits theaters on October 4, 2019! – Bill “Jett” Ramey
