Joker is director Todd Phillips's modern take on movies like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. It stars Joaquin Phoenix in the title role in what happens also to be... a Batman movie. It's been called "a gloriously daring and explosive film" and "a movie that borders on genius" but also "bleak and juvenile" and "a movie of a cynicism so vast and pervasive as to render the viewing experience even emptier than its slapdash aesthetic does."

And: Toy Story 4 is out on Blu-ray and iTunes and such this week. In its theatrical run, it became the highest-grossing G-rated movie ever made, the fifth-highest-grossing animated movie ever made, and the third-highest-grossing movie of the year so far. And it is "perhaps the bleakest (and most beautiful)" of all the Toy Story movies.

Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take:

• Le Creuset Announces STAR WARS Line of Cookware
• Raking leaves again this fall? Stop right now
• etiquette-cellphone-anne-sophie-mutter.html">Filming the Show: Pardon the Intrusion? Or Punish It?A seized phone. A stopped concert. A text from Rihanna. All are new fuel for a heated debate about theater etiquette in the digital age.
• Trustworthy and chill: Alex Trebek, we're rooting for you
• New Dr Pepper and Cream Soda is Coming Soon

GUESTS:

• James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College
• Pedro Soto - President and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies

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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.

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