Ironically, seems that being a little hollow and shallow plays well with audiences. I don’t think is that lifeless but I feel that not going that deep avoids the film becoming outright misery porn.
Or trying to chew something too big to handle maybe.
Shallow is a good word yeah. Thinking about it I was a bit frustrated at some points.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
I think the confrontation between the Joker and De Niro's character could have lasted longer and dig a lot deeper on how unhinged and most importantly little thought out his whole schtick really is. He's basically kneejerking to contempt and personal grudges, flip flops a bit on whether or not it's political, etc... Parasite was a much more powerful film about the constant simmering humiliation in social classes friction points.
There's a lot of talent on display here and I feel it was all a little bit wasted.
Having re-read Esch messages, it's a lot more clear to me where he's coming from and I agree though I don't think I would go as far as toxic. There's a very revanchist bent and some undercooking. It's frustrating because at parts there's some heavy handed but good sequences like the movie theater event and there's really not enough of that.
I also understand why they forced the plot point I hate, they wanted to have that whole personal side to the character. I'm not sure that was the right choice.
The person I saw it with echoed a common sentiment that you could easily substract a couple of elements and have a functional non-Joker film. I don't know how true this is but weaving in the lore felt really artificial.
Overall the film was a little too clean for its purpose, there's only one scene where things really escalate to being shocking.
I'm not really invested in the minutiae of those sort of arbitrary rankings but I think Ledger's character was a lot more potent, mysterious despite having much less time or material to work with. That's not to belittle
Joker or Phoenix's performance, it's a worthwhile effort of offering a different take on the character. But there's no contest for me in that sense. The Nolan film is a massive bore on a whole, sadly.
