comedian Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Director – Todd Phillips – 2019 – US – Cert. 15 – 122m
****1/2

Put on a happy face. Batman spin-off is a remarkable origin story / character study of one of that franchise’s great villains – in cinemas from Friday, October 4th

Arthur Fleck lives in a cramped apartment with his ageing single parent mother and dreams of being a successful comedian. They regularly watch the nightly Murray Franklin Show on TV together. One time Arthur was on the show in the audience and was a big hit as a heckler. Later, a video recording of him doing an act in a club, described by Murray as proving you can’t be funny just by laughing, gets such a strong audience reaction that he’s invited as a guest on the show.

There’s such a lot going on in this film that you could omit certain elements and write a number of very different – but accurate – synopses. One would involve rich entrepreneur Thomas Wayne running for mayor, believing that any poor person can improve their lot just by trying harder, inspiring a Gotham-wide protest which culminates in anarchic riots by people wearing clown masks. Another would involve Arthur’s being mugged by a gang of youths, being given a gun by fellow clown Randall (Glenn Fleshler), shooting three well-heeled but out of order suits on the subway, and becoming a serial murderer who brands himself Joker on prime time TV.… Read the rest

Lee

Director – Ellen Kuras – 2023 – UK – Cert. 15 – 116m

****

Former fashion model Lee Miller, played by producer Kate Winslet, reinvents herself as a war photographer for London Vogue at the start of World War Two – out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 13th

It’s all too easy to assume (as per the ‘auteur’ theory espoused by the French ‘Cahiers du Cinema’ critics of the 1950s) that films are the works of directors. If one had to pick a single creative force behind this film, however, it would be the person who put it all together as producer before any director or writer were involved as collaborators.

That producer was the actress Kate Winslet who wanted to make a film about Vogue model turned photographer Lee Miller. Winslet doesn’t look much like the tall statuesque beauty that Lee Miller was in her younger days, and it didn’t occur to her to portray Lee Miller herself until some way into the process of putting the film together.

To direct the film, Winslet has chosen former cinematographer Ellen Kuras, an appropriate choice since Kuras has worked on documentaries shooting such musicians as David Byrne, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Neil Young, lensed narrative features on the such diverse cultural figures as Jane Goodall and Andy Warhol, and worked with unique film director Michel Gondry.… Read the rest