Napoleon (2023)

Direction: Ridley Scott
Country: USA 

Ridley Scott's Napoleon attempts to capture both the epic military achievements and personal relationships of one of history's most powerful figures, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor and Vanessa Kirby as Empress Josephine. Known for his prowess in historical dramas, Scott's latest endeavor falls short in grasping the complexity of Napoleon's rise and fall.

The film delves into the events that shaped Napoleon's trajectory, offering a reductive, almost anecdotal vision of his life. While the rough combat scenes stand out as the film's most attractive aspect - the bloody battles against the Russians are potentiated by gloomy undertones and Martin Phipps’ tenebrous score - the overall narrative comes across as disjointed and superficial. 

Even cinematically rewarding in terms of carefully framed shots (the evocative cinematography is by Dariusz Wolski), what we experience is lifelessness. Phoenix's portrayal of Napoleon oscillates between bravery and vulnerability, mirroring the film's own conflicted nature. The lack of a personal perspective also prevents the film from delving into something bolder. 

To make matters worse, Phoenix and Kirby have no chemistry, and the film's energy fizzles out before reaching its conclusion. Abel Gance successfully tackled Napoleon's story in 1927, but Scott's adaptation is another missed opportunity to explore the complexities of France's most significant military commander and historical ruler.

Beau is Afraid (2023)

Direction: Ari Aster
Country: USA 

Beau is Afraid is a quirky Freudian odyssey with an unhinged mother/son relationship at the center and some elliptical Kafkaesque situations. Starting off well, it takes a descending curve over the course of a disjointed structure. This exhausting three-hour trip to the edge of madness stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. However, even shifting extraordinarily in attitude from child fragility to adulthood deliriums, he’s powerless in the face of an overstuffed script that serves as a lopsided vehicle for his outstanding acting skills. 

For a film by Ari Aster, who gave us horror gems like Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), it is unspeakably disappointing. It would have been a better horror comedy if it didn’t suffocate in its own ideas. Everything appears to follow a sort of code that needs deciphering, and the systematic metaphors become tiresome as we delve into the real/surreal aspects of a neurotic man whose severe childhood trauma prevents him from finding happiness. Beau tries to reach his mother’s place in time, both before and after her death, but with no success. 

Playing with twisted dimensions and labyrinthine layers, Aster squanders the chance to lead a few good ideas to fruition. The result, much less fascinating than expected, is congested and appalling.

Joker (2019)

Direction: Todd Phillips
Country: USA

Todd Phillips will be forever remembered with this stylish, bitter, and visceral Joker, a story set in Gotham City in the early 80’s that elucidates about how the downcast Arthur Fleck, magnetically played by Joaquin Phoenix, became the DC villain that we all know from the Batman saga.

Arthur, who struggles with a condition that makes him laugh compulsively during tense situations, is a punching bag of a society corrupted by money and power. Victim of severe childhood abuses, he earns a living by performing in parties as a clown or holding store signs on the streets. He lives with his mother, Penny (Frances Conroy), a fragile woman who ironically calls him Happy and lives obsessed with Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), her wealthy former boss who is now running for mayor. The latter’s son is the young Bruce Wayne, who would become Batman in the future in order to avenge the death of his parents and fight the crime in the streets.

Heavily medicated to combat mental illness, Arthur still dreams in becoming a stand up comedian, a tough task with his condition. He is an innocent victim of a bleak world and is wounded both in the heart and in the head. It’s so, so weird to see one of the saddest persons in the world cackling without control whenever in trouble. It has a disquieting effect. The bitter circumstances of life deteriorate his fragile state to the point of making him commit murder and feel good with it. It’s his instinctive and emotionless response to a poisonous society, the dangerous chant of the displaced and the dispossessed. The malevolent act has the support of the miserable people of Gotham, who starts a revolution against the corrupt system.

Arthur’s creepy side makes him unpredictable and his tortuous mind has lots of room for imagination. With a killer gaze and that broad smile in his face, he premeditates his next step: victimize Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), the popular host of a talk show who contributes to his downfall by making fun of him on the TV.

Simultaneously gripping and unsettling, Joker is a win for Todd Phillips, an unremarkable director until now, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver (The Fighter; 8 Mile) and had dedicated his directorial career to comedies such as the Hangover trilogy (2009,2011,2013) and War Dogs (2016). Without a hint of hesitation, he injects mordantly funny moments among the torrents of sadness and makes the film thrive both as a noir drama and a clever psychological thriller. Digging deep into his role, Phoenix was the secret weapon required to make us understand the human pain behind the Joker’s wickedness.

You Were Never Really Here (2018)

Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Country: USA / other

The dramas of Glasgow-born filmmaker Lynne Ramsay always have something special in addition to its rawness. So far, her short filmography comprehends four features, equal parts heavy and memorable, with the prevailing themes of youth, misfit, family, guilt, and grief. Even if her filmmaking skills and idiosyncratic style were pulsating with life in "Ratcatcher" and "Morvern Callar", her first two works, it was with the disturbing "We Need To Talk About Kevin" that she earned a massive recognition. Now, she returns in big with "You Were Never Really Here", a sunless thriller that exquisitely blends corrosive tension and morbid humor to create gripping scenes of alienation and redemption.

Ms. Ramsay, who wrote the script based on the short story of the same name by Jonathan Ames, summoned Joaquin Phoenix, who, in top form, impersonates an enigmatic, violent, and lethal hitman whose favorite weapon is no pistol nor knife but a ball-peen hammer. Heavily traumatized by an abusive father and a merciless military service, the bearded Joe is very reliable when it comes to ‘wipe out’ a man. After each job, he always goes back to his elderly mother (Judith Roberts), with whom he lives in New York City.

In a new assignment, he vouches to free Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), the teenage daughter of an important NY Senator, who was abducted to work in a dirty sex business in which major politicians are involved. The operation is dangerous and Joe is perfectly aware it can cost him friends and family, however, he’s not a give-up type guy. With some madness in his eyes and facing each setback with a disarming calmness, the tenacious hitman finds in Nina the force he needs to accomplish the mission and inflict the deserved punishment on the child abusers. 

Immersive and intriguing, the film develops with the tones of a neo-noir but ultimately glows with hope in the end. Even painful when imagined, the violence was never too explicit or extremist, making this revenge tale much more accessible than the intense shockers "Blue Ruin" and "Cold in July", which could easily upset your stomach. At least, the clouded Joe fights for some justice.

Even eschewing plot excesses, Ramsay wouldn’t be so successful without the arresting cinematography by Tom Townend, the brilliant score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and the unblemished editing by Joe Bini. They worked well together so that the packaging could look great while thrillingly grim moods were captured through a lens darkly. On another plan, Phoenix makes you enjoy every moment of his sinister role with a quiet assurance.