Jude Kauffman (he/him)

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Man, this is a tough one to jump in on. I'm going to keep it simple and save a thematic analysis for a date. If she really likes me, she'll listen to me ramble. But for you, the reader of this review who's wondering whether this is worth watching, I'll put it plainly. If you don't like musicals, you most likely won't like this movie. I'm ambivalent cause I haven't seen many but I kept an open mind going in because I felt that the musical idea was perfect for Joker, being that he's a showman and a musical can help make his feelings seem more complicated and harder to decipher. That absolutely is the case here and worked for me very well. The choice to make the characters sing off-key gives such an unsettling and unique feel to the film that even though it isn't a conventionally catchy singing style for Joaquin and Gaga to deliver, I still find myself after a few days relistening to the soundtrack and reflecting on the musical moments. By the way, if you don't like this movie at all, I think it's hard to knock the cinematography and the mise en scene. The movie is so beautiful to look at and every shot feels better than the last. There is one particularly brilliant musical scene I won't spoil that felt so Joker to me. I think people are misunderstanding the themes of this movie and it's also vastly more complex and focused than the first which makes it better in many ways than the first. In others, I would put it just on par. There is basically nothing in this movie that I think was weaker or worse than the first movie and I'd rate the first movie a solid 4/5 or 8/10 depending on your grading scale. The problem I have with rating this movie is that I don't want to rate it, I just want to talk and gush about it in a way few other movies get me to do. It most certainly makes you think. I remember when I saw the first movie in theaters, I had many moments where I was tearing up and empathizing with Arthur but this movie takes all that to a grander scale and the musical component only accentuates that for me. In short, I loved this movie but had a hard time finding things I disliked about it. When it's out on streaming I'll be rewatching it again and again to revisit it and see how it holds up but I'm going to remember the experience I had with it in theaters. I don't think the reviews are fair or even rational because they would have you believe the movie is unsalvageably bad and has no redeeming qualities to it. It's fine if you don't like the movie but be honest with yourself and others when you review it. Very few movies are so bad that they're worth nothing to anyone. If you're comfortable risking money at a theater to give the movie a chance now, go for it, I don't think it's going to be an utter waste of your time, but if you'd rather watch the movie when it's out on streaming, that's fair too and I think you owe it to yourself to at least give the movie a chance. I know I'm in the minority here but I do think people are being unfair to this movie and I've already explained why. As a fan of DC, we need more movies like this that reexamine our favorite characters. You don't get new and exciting takes on characters without trying new and exciting takes on characters.

Where to start with a show like this? 5 stars feels too limiting and 10/10 feels too reductive. This is a perfect sister piece to BTAS and I'm already rewatching it and anticipating the second season. I'm a massive BTAS fan and this series borrows what worked from that show while turning the dial up a bit on the violence, making the animation more consistent (a frequent problem with that show), reanalyzing and reworking well-known villains in Batman's gallery of rogues and introducing a mass audience to deeper cuts characters like Gentleman Ghost, Nocturna, Firebug, etc. I've seen a lot of complaints about DEI or wokeness and if you're not a nerd, I think this won't bother you. Sorry to say but black people had existed and had jobs in the 40s so that's not even an argument. This is the best way to normalize minority figures in shows, where you don't make much ado about it and put them in roles traditionally seen with white people in them. It's basically just the Hamilton or Bridgerton style of diversity which works really well. As for the 40s aesthetic, it works really well in improving the storytelling and detective work Batman so often engages in by making it a challenge for him. His tech is limited and he doesn't have the benefit of years of experience working alongside the Justice League or the Justice League Dark. He still believes in things being explainable by science and is acclimating himself to the world of magic. Just to recap, this is a sister project to BTAS, not set in the same universe by any metric. It borrows aspects and has easter eggs to its inspiration but it is NOT BTAS. However, is it worth your time? Absolutely, 150%, yes! Don't listen to the fake political discourse surrounding the show. It's just the usual conservative drama mill around any new media that comes out these days. It's how those conservative channels survive.