It was recently announced that Joker will get a gala premiere as part of the Toronto Film Festival. Now the head of the festival has heaped some huge praise on the Todd Phillips directed picture.
In an interview with the Toronto Sun Cameron Bailey has described the movie as a “cinematic achievement on a high level.”
When asked why Joker would be taking centre stage at the festival Bailey had this to say:
“First of all it’s terrific. So it should play on our largest stage,” he explains. “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,” he continued “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.”
High praise indeed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjEmg-zzN98Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, also starring are Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham.
Phillips directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with writer Scott Silver, based on characters from DC. The film is being produced by Phillips and Bradley Cooper under their Joint Effort banner, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff. It is executive produced by Richard Baratta, Joseph Garner and Bruce Berman.
Joker will be released on October 4, 2019. For all our Joker coverage head to our archive!
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