Arthur Fleck is a sick man. Not just in the sense that he has a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably. He’s sick in that he is delusional. He routinely hallucinates that people on the TV are interacting with him. At the start of the film, we learn that he was previously institutionalized and that he’s on no less than seven different medications. He is a man barely holding on to sanity. So what will happen when the city program giving him his meds gets shut down, he gets fired from his job at a clown for hire company, and a group of Wall Street types attacks him, unaware that he has a gun? Watch the movie and find out.
Joker is arguably the most popular villain in all of comics. As a result, any big-screen depiction of him will be subject to scrutiny. I’ll admit, even I was somewhat hesitant at the idea of a film dedicated solely to his origin. After all, he’s a character who works best without a back-story. He’s more scary and unpredictable that way. I also wasn’t too thrilled when I heard that Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover, and absolutely nothing else worth mentioning, would be helming the project. But, having seen the movie now, I’ll say this; Joker is probably the best origin film we could have asked for. The acting, particularly from Joaquin Phoenix, is phenomenal. The sickly, green-tinted cinematography makes this world feel warped and off-kilter. The score is haunting and catchy. And there are some great moments of tension, particularly one scene on the subway that I won’t spoil. You are truly on the edge of your seat the whole time while you’re watching this movie. Part of this flick’s success has to do with the fact that it doesn’t feel like any other version of the character or Gotham city, we’ve seen before. The filmmakers have stated that they were essentially trying to recreate a 70s Scorsese flick, like Taxi Driver or The King Of Comedy, as opposed to a comic book, and that’s very evident when you watch the movie. The rundown, crime-ridden cityscape, the lonely, mentally unstable protagonist, the frequent use of 60s jazz standards, all of these are things you would find in one of his films. On top of this, there is a distinct lack of colorful costumes and over-the-top schemes in this movie. There is no Batman. There is no giant plan to poison a reservoir with laughing gas, which will give everyone in Gotham the same deranged smile. Everything that happens in this flick could happen in real life. As a result, the world of this film feels more realistic, and you can look at it, less as a definitive Joker origin, and more as an Elseworld story, an imaginary tale set in a universe adjacent to the one we all know. And as an Elseworld story, it’s pretty good.
The flick isn’t perfect, though. It goes on for a bit too long, possessing a couple of false endings, and while I appreciate that they wanted to do a very realistic Joker story, they toned down the comic book elements so much that when they do mention things like the Wayne’s and Arkham Asylum, it almost feels out of place. There’s also a subplot involving Zazie Beetz, who plays Joker’s love interest. Her character is so underdeveloped and has so little bearing on the plot that you could have cut her out of the movie entirely, and it would be effected in no way. Granted, I do like the twist they have regarding her character. But even that twist highlights how little she matters in the story. There’s also something to be said concerning this film’s subject matter: a crazy person goes on a killing spree and winds up getting lauded as a hero by the disaffected public. There were a ton of think pieces published before this movie came out about how it was dangerous and too violent, and how it would inspire actual crimes. I’ll tell you now, I think those statements are a bit hyperbolic. Yes, the film is violent, but it’s nowhere close to the most violent movie I’ve ever seen. Hell, it’s nowhere close to the most violent comic book movie I’ve ever seen. Purely in terms of body count, Logan, Deadpool, and Sin City are all more violent than this flick, where only about 6 people get killed. Granted, the violence in those other films is very stylized, and often presented in a super quick manner. Someone will fire a gun, or stab a knife forward, and then someone else will fall. The camera doesn’t linger on the blood or the wounds. The deaths are quick and clean. In Joker, by contrast, where the filmmakers are trying to present things more realistically, the deaths are slow and messy, and the camera lingers on the gore. So I guess in that regard it is more gruesome than your average superhero flick, and if you don’t like blood in your movies, you probably won’t like this. And as for the assertion that it will inspire real-life crimes, I don’t know what to say. This has been an argument surrounding art since, well, forever. And while people might assert that films like Taxi Driver did inspire real people to commit real crimes, I would argue that those people were clinically insane, and would probably have committed those crimes one way or another, regardless of what movie they’d seen. And it’s worth noting that, in the movie itself, Joker states outright that he is not political. He has no opinion on the movement that he inspired. This isn’t like The Dark Knight or The Killing Joke, where his whole goal is to demonstrate that the only difference between him and everyone else is “one bad day.” This is a story about a dangerous, narcissistic individual who cares about no one but himself. He has no time for movements. He has no desire to make statements. He is just a crazy, selfish individual who wants everyone to love him. And if they don’t, they deserve to die. That’s a simple, scary message, yes, but no more terrifying than the messages found in flicks like Taxi Driver or Falling Down and those are hailed as classics.
So, should you watch Joker? That’s really up to you. The performances and craftsmanship are great. And it is the best Joker origin we could probably have asked for. But if you don’t like films like Taxi Driver or King Of Comedy, you won’t like this movie, because it’s very much like those flicks. That, I think, should be the question you ask yourself before watching.
liusviews 