Joker is hated by mainstream reviewers for showing unapologetically, albeit in dramatized style, the harsh reality of systematic abuse and apathy the mentally ill and impoverished face every day. It takes the radical position of depicting people similar to the fictional Thomas Wayne as not the solution, but rather the problem. The poor to people like Thomas Wayne are clowns, not even worthy of contempt. If only they'd work as hard as he, then maybe they'd share his wealth and success! Or so he'd like to believe. His son Bruce will presumably grow up to become Batman, a rich spoiled vigilante that gets his kicks by beating up opportunistic criminals in an urban environment of decay and destitution. Like his father, Bruce is merely part of the problem at best is a symptom of a society facing total moral collapse.
Arthur from the moment of conception is abandoned and left to be abused by a narcissistic "caretaker" and her bad boy boyfriend. He grows up horrifically broken and fantasizes receiving fatherly love from a talk show host. This is the kind of man that is starved of love and has known only the vicious callousness of his anomic society.
It's hard to say if Arthur would have grown or developed normally to begin with, but the fact of the matter is: he is given no chance or hope. His only path is to become insane. All other doors have been shut...
Instead of helping Arthur, his society cuts his meager therapy and leaves him without his many prescriptions. Arthur is subject to physical abuse without any recourse. And the man he came to fantasize as a fatherly figure, ridicules and mocks Arthur for the sake of empty entertainment. The end result is not surprising.
After my wife and I watch a movie, it's our routine to sit by the theater windows to discuss it. We'd talk about what's good, what's bad, our favorite parts, etc. Following The Farewell, we still settled next to the windows, but we sat in silence. Without saying a word, we mutually agreed to postpone talking about the movie. We wanted it to let it sit with us for a moment, for we knew we just watched something special.
The characters in The Farewell are so believable that I didn't need to read Lulu Wang's interviews to confirm that she remained diligently faithful to her true life. The film's personalities heavily invest you in the movie with charming nuisances, relatable dialog, and wonderful performances. Because the cast feels like an actual living family, the audiences' laughs are harder, the pains deeper. The Farewell is proof that a movie doesn't have to be clever to be affecting, it just needs to be real.
There's a quiet commentary on Chinese modernization in The Farewell with its gorgeous glimpses of copy-and-pasted stark residential skyscrapers imposed against foggy skies, scintillating streets, and portraits of ordinary people living with such naturalness that they become extraordinary. At one point Billi (Awkwafina's character) laments the disappearances of sites that she used to know and love, but you don't get the sense that the film is criticizing this progress. Its tone is one more akin to acceptance, as if the film's citizens are tacitly saying "our home is changing, but it's still ours."
The Farewell starts in New York, then the majority of the film takes place in China, and finally it brings us back to New York again. I get the feeling that even if you've never been to China, by the time Billi comes home you still might start to miss China and the constant feasting around lazy Susans. This is the power of the film - it imbues in you a longing for the feeling of togetherness, a value Western countries often replace with individualism. When you see Billi back, walking through the diverse crowds of New York, the difference is palpable. The Farewell is the best cultural lesson on China that I can think of, and to Asian Americans living abroad like me, it's the warmest reminder of home.
Pulp Fiction is full of absurd violence, endless "tough guy" trash-talking, trigger-happy psychopathic idiots, and a plot about nothing... Those deviating from the mainstream consensus may wonder how this film even reaches the top 100.
Its humour is dry and uninspired—with about the only amusing line being about tomatoes. The film is devoid of any soul or humanity and is a good example of style over substance.
Who am I supposed to sympathize with? The drug dealers? The gangbangers? No investment, no tension, no nothing—nobody on the screen apart from the background civilians matters one bit.
Add in the director's awkward and forcefully out of place cameo... The film's drawn-out length... What does make it watchable is the intense performances by some of the cast and high production values.
