Joaquin Phoenix

[8] Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg star as brothers working on different sides of the law in this crime drama from writer/director James Gray (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z). Wahlberg’s character follows in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall), recently being promoted to captain within the New York police. Phoenix is a nightclub manager who is reluctant to help his dad and …

[8] Joaquin Phoenix stars in writer/director Spike Jonze’s sci-fi romance about a divorced man who falls in love with a computer operating system. Her takes place in a not-so-distant future in which society has become increasingly reliant on technology to fulfill our emotional needs. Phoenix’s operating system, named Samantha and voiced by Scarlett Johansson, is constantly evolving. Like a human being, she learns from trial …

[8] Don Cheadle stars as Paul Rusesabagina in the true story of a Rwandan man who saved over a thousand lives by harboring refugees in his hotel during the Hutu slaughtering of the Tutsi in 1994. Hotel Rwanda takes about ten or fifteen minutes to set itself up before it becomes a non-stop terrifying fight for life. Once the Hutu begin killing his friends and …

[8] On its surface, Joker is an origin story about Batman’s arch-nemesis. So at first glance, you might mistake it for ‘just another superhero’ movie. But writer/director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix have actually made a film that transcends the comic book genre. Joker works as a disturbing character study, an all-too timely allegory, and a provocative meditation on a theme — something we …

[8] Nicolas Cage stars in this dark, disturbing mystery/thriller from screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow) and director Joel Schumacher (Blood Creek, The Lost Boys). Cage plays a detective hired by a wealthy widow to determine if her late husband’s snuff film was real or fake. Cage travels to Los Angeles, where he meets up with a porn hustler played by Joaquin Phoenix. The …

[6] A small, isolated village of puritan-like people come under siege by a killer in their midst, as well as woodland monsters that may not be what they seem… Whether or not you like M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village ultimately hinges upon two big conceits (or twists, if you will). I’m okay with the first, as it comes organically from the hopes and fears of …

[5] Gosh. I guess I just don’t get this movie. I mean, it’s beautiful and all, and the performances are certainly something special. But what the hell do I take from the story? It’s so open-ended (thematically), it’s practically a Rorschach test — probably by design, but frustrating nonetheless. Joaquin Phoenix plays a WWII veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress who serendipitously falls in with an …