Napoleon

 

Napoleon

If you are into history and especially military history this is your film. In full disclosure, real historians have criticized the film’s accuracy. For the rest of us, this two-and-a-half-hour movie may be a challenge. Given its epic proportions, this is basically a two-actor movie with a large supporting cast: Joaquin Phoenix is Napoleon and Vanessa Kirby is Josephine.

Phoenix’s emotional range is flat. He portrays Napoleon as stoic and dower. In other films, Phoenix demonstrated his great range of talent which was denied in this film. Phoenix displays Napoleon’s brutishness and as a great general Napoleon used his troops like cannon fodder sustaining sizable casualties. Phoenix displays Napoleon’s indifference to these massive fatalities. As a general Napoleon leads from the front and Pheonix demonstrates this steeliness. Phoenix executes Napoleon’s generalship with detachment and purpose. The film is humorless except when he copulates with Josephine; he breaks the land speed record.

As Josephine Kirby does the emotional heavy lifting. Her relationship with Napoleon is complicated. They love each other but the relationship is transactional. Kirby dramatizes the emotional burdens of loving a powerful man. Her feelings and persona are suppressed for the good of the nation. She is used for the greater good. She projects her hurt.

The battle scenes are spectacular and frankly too many. They take up a large portion of the film. The costuming is impressive and rich. The period pieces are museum quality. In the end, this is like a PBS production with a bloated budget.

Apple Studios is earmarking $1b a year on movies. So far with Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon they are rolling snake eyes.

C’mon C’mon

 

C’mon C’mon (Amazon Prime)

Joaquin Phoenix is the consummate actor, playing roles from Johnny Cash to the Joker. In this movie he   portrays Johnny the title character as melancholy and moody. This sets the tone for the movie. It is shot entirely in black and white normally an effect of film noir. In some scenes characters are in deep shadow only showing part of their face.

Johnny is a radio journalist working on a project interviewing kids around the country asking them what they think about the future and their lives. He has not seen his sister Viv in a year since their mother’s death from complications from Alzheimer’s. Viv has to go away to take care of her estranged husband who is having a mental breakdown and she asks Johnny to look after his nephew Jessie played by Woody Norman. He is a precocious nine year old who gives an emotional performance of a child maneuvering the uncertainties of a family in crisis. The relationship with Johnny is rocky and over time a bond develops but not without challenges. Johnny finds out dealing with a kid is hard. Protecting him and reprimanding him is a balancing act. Much of the movie is interaction between Johnny and Jesse interspersed with scenes with Viv explaining how to deal with Jesse.

Johnny clearly loves Jesse and puts up a lot with his antics. This is not a straightforward feel good movie, it has many emotional speed bumps. If you have the holiday blues this is not your movie.

 

Joker

Joker

This is a depressing bleak movie; however Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is outstanding and sublime. This is an origin movie of the Joker whose real name is Arthur Fleck. He works for a clown agency sending clowns to hospitals, out of business stores and children’s party’s. Gotham City is based on 1970’s New York City with graffiti covered subways, porno theaters and roaming gangs. This gritty violent environment is the perfect backdrop for someone going mad.

Phoenix is a portrait in progress of a person descending into madness. Sad eyes and vacant face, anyone who suffered from mental illness can relate. He sees himself as a comedian but he is not funny. Phoenix has the  Joker’s trademark laugh. His laughing is uncontrollable and puts him some traumatic situations. He suffers from a real medical condition called pseudobulbar affect (PBA). The condition can be triggered by stressful or awkward situations and the laughter can be mistaken for mockery. Phoenix uses laughter as a precursor of violence. His Joker is emaciated in this movie; his ribcage and shoulder blades jut out. I am not sure what method acting this was supposed to represent but there are chubby killers.

 He does not start out violent but as a victim of violence and ridicule becomes violent. The violence becomes more frequent and brutal. There has been much said in the press about this film’s violence. Quentin  Tarantino’s movies have ten times the violence than this film. Maybe here the violence is specific to  a madman and is more relatable to current events. As he commits more murders his violence becomes more nonchalant.

The movie is a bit slow. It took about one hour for the action to start. This is more of a dark drama rather than a superhero flick with  lighthearted banter. In two hours there was only one screen that was funny and clever.

The other actor of note was Robert De Niro who portrayed a parity of late night host Johnny Carson. The stage set was a fateful reproduction of Carson’s show down to the same open curtain. Compared to his other performances this was a cake walk for DeNiro. De Niro’s performance is not the impetus to see this film.

I am not deep into the Batman lore but the Wayne’s appear in the film and Bruce Wayne is portrayed  as a young boy. In this script there is tangled relation between Arthur Fleck and the Wayne’s.

This year’s crop of Academy bound films has not yet blossomed so it is difficult to compare Joker to its competition. At minimum I think Phoenix will get a nomination for best actor. Anyway given the film’s big box office the award would be a nice to have.