REVIEW: Joker
Comic book movies are still all the rage and it takes something special to stand out. Releasing a dark villain-driven movie based on a character who has already had many appearances in film (and the range in quality from the brilliant Oscar-winning Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight to Jared Leto’s mess in The Suicide Squad) is a bit of a risk but Todd Phillips certainly wasn’t going to play it safe with Joker. Casting Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role, Phillips double down on the risk by creating a movie that dared to ask how low does the support in a society have to go to create a villain as despicable as Joker? And to do it with barely a nod to Batman, that’s a director with guts and the bold move certainly pays off.
Joker is its own film its own world. There are no links to other characters and movies and its refreshing to see a comic book movie without a hundred links to others. Whilst it is its own film, many in the audience will be aware of the character due to his popularity over the years as Batman’s greatest villain and there are little nods to the character’s history and great pieces of work over the years. Joker takes a grounded approach when bringing its world to life, even more so than Matt Reeves’ brilliant The Batman. It revels in the films and stories that have inspired it such as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. They both tell stories of lonely men struggling with mental illness and not getting the support they need and the consequences of this. In Joker, Arthur Fleck is man down on his luck. Working as a clown-for-hire in Gotham City in 1981, he ends up losing his job and being beat up by thieves. Gotham is suffering from high rates of unemployment, crime, and poverty. Arthur has sessions with his social worker to get his medication and deal with his ongoing mental health issues but even that support is being cut. He also battles with a condition that leads to him laughing, often hysterically, at sometimes inappropriate times. The little bits of light in his life are the moments where he looks after his ill mother who enjoys watching a show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro) and Arthur begins to develop a fantasy where he appears on the show with Murray and speaks about how he cares for his mother, who used to work for Thomas Wayne. With his issues building, dressed as a clown, he shoots dead two people on the subway who were threatening him. This act leads to the tension in the city boiling over as some see Fleck as a hero standing up for himself and those who are looked down on.
Joker is not an easy movie at all. It is a hard watch with difficult themes and scenes that shine a light on issues that are still being seen in the world today. Phoenix is superb in his role as the tortured titular star who is beaten to the point of breaking and turning on the world. Great villains are ones that you can understand even if their actions may terrify you and the villain’s journey here is done to perfection. Phoenix displays to vulnerability of Fleck with every small detail, every twitch in his smile, every uncomfortable laugh and Phillips does brilliantly to keep the camera centred on the star – often when others may have cut away. It is a film designed to make you uncomfortable for a reason and in doing so, Phillips and Phoenix created a work of art that is incredibly fresh in a genre that is oversaturated easy stories and issues. The cinematography, sound, and editing are all expertly crafted to deliver a film that isn’t intended to make you smile but is instead there to make you feel and question the world around you. It is a work of art in a way that not many comic book blockbusters are and it stands out all the more for it right up to its explosive ending.
Joker may not be a film you will want to watch over and over but it is one that will stay with you forever. Masterfully crafted with Phoenix delivering the best performance of his stellar career, Joker is comic book film like no other. Whilst its brilliance can stand on its own away from others, there is a sequel on the way and it has a lot to live up to!
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