The biggest fall movies are finally here. We've gotten Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (a solid sequel), Demi Moore's The Substance (a disturbing must-see), Will & Harper (a true tearjerker). And on the horizon? Y'all, all I can think about is Wicked.
But this week, two buzzy movies dropped that I rushed to the theater to see. One of them...was pretty good. The other was so great. Here, my reviews and movie recommendations of the week: Joker: Folie à Deux and Saturday Night.
Let's start with the "pretty good" one. Joker: Folie à Deux was not nearly as bad as the critics made out. The film follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) as he survives life in prison following the murders of six people, all while the outside world cheers him on as "The Joker." Oh, and much of it is told through song and dance (really).
As I said in my in-depth, spoiler-filled review from earlier this week, Lady Gaga is sensational as his counterpart-slash-love interest in this Joker sequel. Her performance is wildly understated, with layers peeled back throughout the intense (albeit slowly paced) film.
The movie is a super interesting character study of Fleck, with major surprises in store for fans who think they know him from the original. And that twist ending? Don't even get me started on how good it is.
The critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes stands at an abysmal 33 percent, but don't let that dissuade you. The film has its problems, but like I said, it's still pretty good.
That said, if you only have time for one movie this week, the one you should really check out is Saturday Night.
Saturday Night—my must-see pick of the week—comes from director Jason Reitman (who brought us Juno and several of the newer Ghostbusters films). The movie follows Lorne Michaels and the original cast of Saturday Night Live in the hour and a half leading up to the comedy show's first ever live episode in 1975. This fictionalized (but based on a true story) retelling depicts some of the biggest comedians of the time: Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, George Carlin, Milton Berle, Al Franken, Andy Kaufman, John Belushi and more. While I'm quite familiar with all of those famous names, I had no idea just how close they (and the show) came to never making it to air on NBC.
This film showing the lead-up to the first episode of SNL is funny, chaotic and absolutely enthralling. The fast-paced plot is less concerned with character development (though we do get gems involving each of the famous faces) and more focused on the perfect storm that occurred on that October night in 1975, which brought about the revolutionary show that is still airing today.
The movie has more than a few laugh out loud scenes (including Nicholas Braun's Kaufman doing his iconic "Mighty Mouse" number) and the one-liners fly so fast it's hard to catch them all.
Unlike Joker, Saturday Night is short, sweet and easy to watch. It features the fun energy of The Bear with more laughs than I'm accustomed to from Saturday Night Live itself. 10/10—I recommend.
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