Hi!
During the last two days I've watched 2 movies starring Joaquin Phoenix.
The first one was "Gladiator". I kinda liked it. Very, very pompous, but the moral was good and it was entertaining through and through. Phoenix' acting is great, as he portrays the spoiled, corrupt and evil emperor.
The second movie was "Joker". I was so disappointed. The beginning was quite good, although not super good. I sometimes felt that I was watching more the life of a schizophrenic guy than watching a Hollywood character. But then something happened when Joker was invited to a TV show. The movie became just trash. Pretentious and really, really bad. I thought of Oliver Stone and "Natural Born Killers". The movie pretends to have a political message, but it's unclear what the message is. Just like it's unclear what the Joker thinks is so funny about his jokes. Pretentious in the purest sense.