The Venice Film Festival kicked off its 76th annual event this past Saturday. With films such as Ad Astra, The Truth and J’accuse appearing at the festival, it is certainly a year of high caliber films. However, there is one particular feature that is making quite some noise for itself: Joker.
With the massive praise coming from critics and the awards buzz surrounding Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the titular character, Deadline sat down Alberto Barbera to discuss Joker. Barbera, who serves as the director for the festival at hand, believes in the film’s chances at awards success, saying:
A strong statement that sings the film’s praises. Alberto continues to talk about the praise that Joker has been receiving:
IGN describes the official synopsis of the film as promising:
As a person who is slowly becoming tired of these large-budget superhero flicks, and who wanted to see a win for DC, it would seem that this niche that will appeal to the film nerd in me.
Todd Phillips and Joker
Of course, Todd Phillips is the man helming the project; steering Phoenix and the rest of the cast to surround a genre-shifting film. Phillips is best known for The Hangover series and 2016’s War Dogs. It seems a bit of a jump in style for the director, but I believe that his background in comedy will play well with the character and darker themes of the film. Just like Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, Joker appears to be balancing a tale of dramatic weight and darkly hilarious moments.
