767 Movies Like Joker (2019) (Page 36)

If you wanted to watch an epic historical drama about the three assassination attempts against the first emperor of China, 2002’s Hero is the better known, and better acclaimed, choice. Nevertheless, the drama that depicted this four years earlier, the Emperor and the Assassin, is a fairly decent watch, with nearly three hours to parse out Ying Zheng’s career with extravagant production design and excellent performances to marvel at. The film is also slightly more accurate, taking its characters from actual historical record. The Emperor and the Assassin may not be perfect– it’s aggressively sepia-tinged, and it does struggle to maintain the plot’s focus– but it depicts the history well, regardless.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Chen Kaige, Ding Haifeng, Gong Li, Li Hongtao, Li Qiang, Li Xuejian, Lü Xiaohe, Pan Changjiang, Sun Zhou, Wang Qian-Yuan, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Benshan, Zhiwen Wang, Zhou Xun

Director: Chen Kaige

Rating: R

By all appearances, Eliza and Louis have a charming marriage. They’re casual and good-humored in the morning and full of passion in the evening. So when Eliza finds a love note addressed to her husband one day, naturally, she freaks out. She enlists the help of her eccentric family and sets off to Manhattan, where they all try to get to the bottom of the affair; what follows is an endearingly awkward adventure around town. Though the film often meanders both in plot and dialogue, the expert ensemble keeps things compelling with their convincing chemistry and wry, visual humor. Coupled with lush images of ‘90s New York and brilliantly droll writing, The Daytrippers is a joyride of a film, as unassuming as it is enthralling.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family, Mystery

Actor: Adam Davidson, Amy Stiller, Anne Meara, Campbell Scott, Carol Locatell, Douglas McGrath, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Marc Grapey, Marcia Gay Harden, Marcia Haufrecht, Parker Posey, Pat McNamara, Paul Herman, Peter Askin, Stanley Tucci, Stephanie Venditto

Director: Greg Mottola

Rating: R

If you’ve seen the bone-chilling Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, then The Commandant's Shadow isn’t just supplementary but necessary viewing. It interviews and interrogates the son of SS officer Rudolf Höss, who describes his childhood in Auschwitz as “idyllic,” and parallels his life with that of an Auschwitz survivor and her family. They’re not asked “gotcha” questions, though there are some moments where Höss’s family members’ insularity shocks you. Instead, everyone is given the time and space to reflect honestly about the pain and trauma that continues to live on in their families. It’s a difficult film to sit through, but insightful and ever-so-resonant in an age where mass torture and genocide continue in many parts of the world.

Genre: Documentary, History, War

Actor: Adolf Hitler, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Hans-Jürgen Höss, Kai Höss, Maya Lasker-Wallfisch

Director: Daniela Völker

Rating: PG-13

When travelling to another place, another city, another town, there’s a certain anonymity that frees one’s self. No one knows who you are, so you’re not expected to maintain a certain personality, and that can be necessary for young people trying to find their way. The Breaking Ice shows this in a fairly sentimental way, juxtaposing the wintry, snowy landscape with the warm but fleeting connection forming between three lonely adults, but there’s just something honest in the way the three try to hide but still share the same youthful ennui, even if they come from vastly different backgrounds. The Breaking Ice might not be daring enough to delve into the queer aspect of this trio, but it’s still a lovely, well-crafted drama contemplating the youth’s melancholy.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Liu Baisha, Liu Haoran, Qu Chuxiao, Ruguang Wei, Zhao Wenhao, Zhou Dongyu

Director: Anthony Chen

Shot almost entirely in one take and on a tiny budget, and yet the central performance in this movie is still better than most big-budget dramas I’ve seen this year.

Two indigenous women, one upper-class and the other impoverished, meet on the day that the rich one gets an IUD and the other one, pregnant, finds herself kicked out of her home. They spend a few hours together: they talk, they take cabs, walk, etc; and you as a viewer, follow them throughout their intimate yet difficult moments.

If you like subtle movies that showcase how people live and interact with one another, beyond plot-obsessiveness, this is for you.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Aidan Dee, Anesha Bailey, Anthony Bolognese, Barbara Eve Harris, Charles Jarman, Charlie Hannah, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, James Angus Cowan, Jay Cardinal Villeneuve, Kathleen Hepburn, Lissa Neptuno, Paul Jarrett, Sonny Surowiec, Tony Massil, Violet Nelson

Director: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn

Rating: TV-MA

The Bloody Hundredth was produced as an accompaniment to fellow Apple TV+ production Masters of the Air, and it shows. In writing and editing, it doesn’t feel grand enough to stand on its own despite having big stars like Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg come in and lend their presence. That said, it’s still a compelling story, made even more valuable by the real-life heroes who recall their experiences onscreen. This, plus the rich archival footage that accompanies them, is what makes an otherwise straightforward documentary well worth watching.

Genre: Documentary, History, War

Actor: Adolf Hitler, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Frank Murphy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Stewart, John 'Lucky' Luckadoo, John A. Clark, Joseph Stalin, Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Winston Churchill

Director: Laurent Bouzereau, Mark Herzog

Rating: PG-13

Watch this if you like weird movies. And don't be fooled by the first half, which serves just to set Jesse Eisenberg's character and the monotone life he leads. It's the calm before the storm, during which that character is attacked by a violent gang and decides to take self-defense classes in an unusual club. This is a movie about modern manhood and how it can lead to some pretty strange situations. Great performance from Eisenberg as usual.

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Actor: Alessandro Nivola, Apollo Bacala, Caroline Amiguet, Dallas Edwards, Davey Johnson, David Zellner, Frederic Spitz, Hauke Bahr, Imogen Poots, Jason Burkey, Jesse Eisenberg, Josh Fadem, Katherine Smith-Rodden, Leland Orser, Lena Friedrich, Louis Robert Thompson, Mike Brooks, Phillip Andre Botello, Steve Terada

Director: Riley Stearns

Rating: R

The documentary offers a simplified, reflective look at the origins of meme culture and hive mind, and how online anonymity has led to toxic beliefs and behaviors in real life. It features a nostalgic collection of 2000s memes and references that awaken the sleeping cringe, as well as valuable insights from people who have contributed to or lived through the destructive milestones that ironic memes created. At best, it is an informative work that doesn't waste time or become so overwhelming—it even comes with short, entrancing animations that serve as a respite from the depressing subject. At worst, it's preaching to the choir.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Arthur Jones, Giorgio Angelini

Rating: R

The documentary starts off with a feeler that this is a wild soap opera, a real life science experiment that cannot be enacted in good conscience. If you'd never read the blurb, you’d see the coincidences slowly revealed layer by layer until the story finally clicks. Early on, it feels reliant on telling as opposed to showing, but it could just be a case of working with what you have footage-wise. The openness of our main interviewees does get better with time, but the exploration of the psychological effect and implications of such an event was lacking considering the level of coincidence we’re dealing with. All in all, it’s heartwarming, albeit with the exciting story beats very spaced out.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Alessandro Angulo

Rating: PG-13

This funny and charming movie is about a Palestinian slacker named Salam who works on a famous Israeli soap opera. Each day, he has to pass a tough Israeli checkpoint to get to work and in an attempt to make things easier for himself, he agrees to change the ending of the soap opera to please the officer in charge of the checkpoint. At the same time, a temperamental French actress and his Palestinian love interest wish for opposite endings to the show. Stuck between love and politics, Salam has to navigate a complex situation to please all sides. There are a lot of hummus jokes.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Amer Hlehel, Ashraf Farah, Kais Nashif, Laëtitia Eïdo, Lobna Azabal, Lubna Azabal, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Nadim Sawalha, Qais Nashif, Salim Dau, Salim Daw, Ula Tabari, Yaniv Biton, Yousef Sweid

Director: Sameh Zoabi

The lives of a single mother forced into prostitution and another woman who needs an operation to restore her virginity clash with the structure of Iran’s traditionally patriarchal society in Tehran Taboo.  The result is a story that sheds light on the double standards women face, especially surrounding sex and sexuality, and overall what it is like to be female in a society practically founded on institutional misogyny. 

To make up for not being able to shoot in Tehran, director Ali Soozandeh chose to use the method of rotoscope animation: an unconventional style of animation that involves first shooting live actors in a studio and then inserting extra sounds and backgrounds in the editing process. Tehran Taboo is fearless in its exploration of the social and sexual restrictions imposed in modern Iran.

Genre: Animation, Drama

Actor: Adem Karaduman, Aida Loos, Alireza Bayram, Arash Marandi, Elmira Rafizadeh, Gernot Polak, Hasan Ali Mete, Klaus Ofczarek, Morteza Tavakoli, Şiir Eloğlu, Thomas Nash, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Zar Amir Ebrahimi

Director: Ali Soozandeh

In this sweet-natured British comedy filmed mostly in black and white, Marek is a Polish boy who lives with his alcoholic father in London. He meets Tomo, a kid from the British Midlands who escaped his family and came to London alone.

They form a friendship that this movie follows for a few days. With nowhere to stay, Tomo moves in with Marek without Marek’s father noticing. The two end-up plotting a scheme that turns things around both for them and for the styling of the movie.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Elisa Lasowski, Huggy Leaver, Ireneusz Czop, Kate Dickie, Mark Monero, Perry Benson, Piotr Jagiello, Steven Hillman, Thomas Turgoose, Trevor Cooper

Director: Shane Meadows

Rating: Not Rated