Joker (2019)

R16
2019
|
121 mins
Trailer
Poster for Joker (2019)

Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe as DC Comics villain Joker in this fresh take, set in... More

Where to watch Joker (2019)

Joker (2019) is available to stream in New Zealand now... More on YouTube and Netflix and Google TV and Apple TV Store and Academy On Demand and AroVision.

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Joker (2019) | Ratings & Reviews

"The word “problematic” boomed through social media megaphones even by people who had yet to see Todd Philips’ Joker after its much-hyped premiere at the Venice Film Festival. But for all the fears of it promoting ‘incels’ (shorthand for the ‘involuntarily celibate’ online subculture linked to real-world misogynistic horrors like the 2014 Isla Vista killings) and the broader extreme right wing movement more generally, the North American premiere that I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival left me with a different conclusion..."

FlicksFlicks

"The Joker’s whole deal is the chaotic lack of logic behind his acts, so exploring his origin story was always going to be complicated. Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover, Due Date, War Dogs), Joker is kind of a mess. A stylised Gotham City never once captures the magic of Phillips’ alleged cinematic references—Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Akerman’s News From Home."

FlicksFlicks

"Phillips says he doesn’t see Joker as a major departure, and it’s clear what he means: he has made a career out of manchild movies and here is another."

Sydney Morning HeraldSydney Morning Herald

"The year’s biggest disappointment has arrived."

The GuardianThe Guardian

"It is brilliantly performed – you can put the house on Phoenix getting an Oscar nomination, at least – stunningly well staged and disarmingly well written and argued. It also contains the seeds – the Batman origin story is revisited – for a remake of Batman Begins."

StuffStuff

"As a standalone piece of cinema documenting the grim descent of a broken human being into madness this is visceral, confronting, uncomfortable and flawed. Gifted storytelling in places, heavy-handed when it needn't be in others, there is so very little light in the dark and there is nothing blockbuster here."

NewshubNewshub

"Its priorities are less in entertainment than in generating self-importance. As social commentary, “Joker” is pernicious garbage."

RogerEbert.comRogerEbert.com

"It's a very good movie, and it features a blood-curdling performance from Joaquin Phoenix, in the most frightening portrayal of a violent maniac in decades."

San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chronicle

"A stark commentary on the human condition."

The AustralianThe Australian

"Not to discredit the imaginative vision of the writer-director, his co-scripter and invaluable tech and design teams, but Phoenix is the prime force that makes Joker such a distinctively edgy entry in the Hollywood comics industrial complex."

Hollywood ReporterHollywood Reporter

"A dazzlingly disturbed psycho morality play, one that speaks to the age of incels and mass shooters and no-hope politics, of the kind of hate that emerges from crushed dreams."

VarietyVariety

"More character study than comic book movie, and anchored by an Oscar-worthy Joaquin Phoenix, Joker is a bravura blockbuster that proves you don't need superpowered scraps to dazzle."

Total FilmTotal Film

""Joker" is a dark, brooding and psychologically plausible origin story, a vision of cartoon sociopathy made flesh."

Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times

"Bold, devastating and utterly beautiful, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix have not just reimagined one of the most iconic villains in cinema history, but reimagined the comic book movie itself."

Empire MagazineEmpire Magazine

"Superhero blockbuster this is not: a playful fireman's-pole-based homage to the old Batman television series is one of a very few lighthearted moments in an otherwise oppressively downbeat and reality-grounded urban thriller..."

Daily TelegraphDaily Telegraph

"What do you get when you take a poor, mentally unstable loner and you treat him like trash? The answer given in Todd Phillips's ingenious new feature is Batman's arch nemesis, the Joker."

IndependentIndependent

""Joker" achieves two contradictory goals simultaneously, delivering a blockbuster that highlights what is eternally captivating about the character, while at the same time offering a sobering critique of the nihilism that has long been the Joker's M.O."

Screen DailyScreen Daily

"Phillips may want us to think he's giving us a movie all about the emptiness of our culture, but really, he's just offering a prime example of it."

Time MagazineTime Magazine

"Having brazenly plundered the films of Scorsese, Phillips fashions stolen ingredients into something new, so that what began as a gleeful cosplay session turns progressively more dangerous - and somehow more relevant, too."

The GuardianThe Guardian

"This is a truly nightmarish vision of late-era capitalism - arguably the best social horror film since Get Out - and Joaquin Phoenix is magnetic in it."

Time OutTime Out

"It's nothing less (and nothing more) than an agent of unbridled chaos."

IndieWireIndieWire

Joker (2019) | Details

Award winner
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Phoenix) and Original Score, Academy Awards 2020; Best Performance (Phoenix) & Original Score, Golden Globes 2020; Best Actor (Phoenix), Original Score & Casting, BAFTAs; Winner of the Golden Lion (Best Film), Venice Film Festival 2019
Rating
R16, Violence, cruelty & offensive language
Runtime
121
Genre
Thriller
Country of origin
USA

Joker (2019) | Trailers