David Farnor | On 31, Aug 2019

With Netflix, Amazon and HBO out in force at the Venice Film Festival 2019, we head over to the Lido to catch up with their latest offerings and review some of the other films making their debuts.

Joker

“People don’t consider what it’s like to be the other guy anymore.” That’s Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) mid-rant in Joker, as he decries the state of the world today, a state that has left the rich dismissing the poor, the poor resenting the rich and people in need of medication and therapy with nowhere to turn for aid, due to state funding cuts. The year? Not 2019, but the 1970s, and Gotham City is on the brink of descent into madness: a febrile, feverish madness that means murders on the street are considered commonplace and riots on public transport the new norm. Beneath this gripping, bold, revisionist psychological thriler, which belongs more in the Joaquin Phoenix Universe than the DC Universe, Joker is the comic book villain we deserve right now.

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Rare Beasts

Billie Piper makes her directorial debut with this enjoyably prickly affair – a romantic comedy that is determined to do something new and unique.

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