Joker

Joker, possibly the most talked-about film I have ever witnessed, and maybe the most talked-about film of the year finally hit the silver screen. Director Todd Phillips and starring man Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here, Her) put their stamp on the character. Not without controversy, as many news outlets have called the film “incendiary” and making comparisons to recent acts of senseless violence. Putting those pretences aside, I made my way to the movie theatre with a friend and watched Joker. Here are my full thoughts. A quick warning though a lot of this film has already been revealed through trailers and PR releases, I find it a better experience to go into this totally blind.

Joker. The name has taken on new meaning today. Before Heath Ledger’s performance as the magnetic, anarchic, psychotic clown in the Dark Knight, he was simply Batman’s constant nemesis. A sick deranged man who could push our hero to the limits of what the hero could take and even beyond — depending on how you feel about the 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke. 

After Ledger put his stamp upon the character, the character has become seemingly more high brow and complex. If there was one constant unwritten rule about the character, it would be that he does not have a definitive origin. Half of the Joker’s mystique came from the multiple conflicting tales of how he ended up as the maniacal clown. So, against that unwritten rule, Todd Phillips and Scott Silver have created an origin of the character. But, after seeing the film, I would almost say they made a film about a man who, akin to the Joker, wears clown makeup. This isn’t the tale of any Joker you know and it doesn’t tie into any established DC lore.

[SPOILERS] Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is a clown for hire working for the HaHa company amidst a particularly nasty economic downturn in Gotham City. Arthur is awkward and cynical, suffering deeply from a mental Illness and an uncontrollable tick that causes him to burst into laughter when he is nervous. This causes many people to feel discomfort, suspicion, scaring some, and causing a violent reaction from others. The psychiatrist he normally gets his medication from and talks to has to close the doors of the clinic due to budget cuts. 

Arthur lives with his mother Penny (Francis Conroy; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Scent of a Woman) who he also cares for. After he loses his job, things take a turn from bad to worse. He gets dismissed by everyone he comes across and some people even going so far as to punch him in the face. Arthur is met with an uncaring cold world at every turn. He wishes the world was a nicer happier place. His own internal struggles are hard enough on him, but the streets of Gotham are cruel. Arthur falls further and further. His only reprieve being his love interest Sophia (Zazie Beetz; Geostorm, Deadpool 2), a single mother who lives in the same building as his mother and him. At a brief meeting with Sophia in an elevator, Arthur sees her warm smile. She appears to be the only person who can see past his awkwardness and finds him funny. 

He dreams of one day being a stand-up comedian, but mental health issues along with his own disconnect from society and normal human behaviour stop him at every turn. Downtrodden and cast aside by society leads Arthur to own a gun. Due to how society fails to understand him or his illnesses, Arthur feels constantly threatened. His condition gets Arthur into no short amount of trouble. On a train with three Wayne Corp. yuppies, Arthur is taunted and then beaten. This ends tragically for the three men and Arthur now has blood on his hands. Eventually, the laughter that caused him so much distress comes more frequently. The vicious killer laughing inside of Arthur can’t be held back and a very blood-thirsty clown unveils himself to the world.. and he wants you to call him Joker. [END OF SPOILERS]

Todd Phillips hasn’t been humble in any way about this film and hasn’t denied its inspirations. From Taxi Driver to the King of Comedy, it’s blatantly in front of you throughout the film in nearly every scene. Gotham is going through a trash strike. Every part of this city looks like the combined parts of any city you avoid. Trash is stacked on the pavements and alleyways which is an element of the film that develops its world into a believable place, but it’s also not an original idea. It’s from Taxi Driver. During the filming of Scorsese’s classic movie, an actual trash strike was going on in New York. While yes, it lends itself well to the film it was a coincidence that had happened. Another homage is when Travis Bickle gets his hands on a gun in the film Taxi Driver he toys with it in his apartment by pointing it at imaginary people while perfecting his tough-guy act. There is a scene that mimics this in Joker with Arthur dancing topless with a gun — the difference that being in Taxi Driver it shows how far Travis Bickle has fallen into his delusional psychosis. By comparison, in Joker it doesn’t convey much other than he isn’t comfortable using a weapon. This homage could have been implemented better.

[SPOILERS] The other Scorsese film that Joker pulls from, possibly more than Taxi Driver, is the King of Comedy. There are many scenes depicting the central character Rupert Pupkin drifting into flights of fantasy. As the film progresses, the line between reality and fiction gets blurred and it becomes hard to discern what’s actually happening. Joker also tries this, but the scenes which are Arthur’s fantasies are kind of obvious. Later in the film, the same scenes are shown to occur differently. I think was a total misstep as the audience could have figured this out on their own. Also, showing these particular scenes as imaginary ones doesn’t leave us any room to contemplate on own what was real and what wasn’t. The line was clearly drawn for the audience which takes away from what could be. [END OF SPOILERS]

In many ways, the Scorsese films that Joker tries so hard to live up to, have harmed this film, but there are ways those films have also helped. The aesthetics of Taxi Driver has been emulated well here. The misfortune comes from the full character study, which is a phrase I am sure if your sick of hearing from many reviews of Joker. A character study is a full immersion into a character’s traits. You spend a lot of time in their shoes which we do from the second the film opens. We are with Arthur through the good and bad. We live and breathe with him. 

The audience disconnects in the later parts of the film — when watching Arthur take in the world around him and misinterpret that information. This is obviously another element taken from Taxi Driver. We watch as a character draws conclusions from the information they receive from other characters. While it works in Taxi Driver because you are really there with Travis Bickle, in Joker you are never fully there with Arthur Travis. Bickle reacted to the world around him, Arthur can’t seem to connect to the world around him. Instead, his reactions come from why the world hates him so much.

The performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Francis Conroy are captivating. You are stuck with these actors as they grab you by the throat from the word go. Joaquin is definitely the stand out though. He injects so much into this character. From the beginning, I never seemed to look at the screen and think “this is Joaquin Phoenix”.  He really inhabited the role fully and never let up. To see an actor with this much range in his emotions and ticks the character study comes from Joaquin much more than it does from the writer or director. 

Francis Conroy is definitely the second standout performance within the film. She takes the character of Arthur’s mother to places it may not of went with another actress. Penny has a bizarre relationship with Arthur, which conveys both a love for her son but also a distance at which she interprets reality around her. The deepest synergy comes from when Arthur bathes her. She has a hundred-yard stare and a sadness within her that sells her performance for me.

Zazie Beetz and her role are kinda cast aside, so there isn’t much I can say without drifting into spoiler territory, other than her character served the purpose she was intended to. 

Robert De Niro’s (The Godfather Part II, Cape Fear) character Franklin Murray, a talk show host in the same vein as today’s Jimmy Fallon, is a testament to De Niro’s range as an actor and his years of experience. During a scene with Phoenix, De Niro’s Murray is discussing some of the questions brought forth by Joker’s actions. In these minimal lines, De Niro portrays a vast amount of opinions and the mixed feelings he is having at that time. Something only a seasoned actor can tell a viewer with such a small amount of screen time.

Cinematography and music in this film I feel were so in conjunction that they were part of each other. The cinematography, music, and the performance by Phoenix were the highlights of the movie. The sets are beautifully designed and the attention to detail is fantastic. One scene shows us De Niro’s character before and after he goes on stage to present the show. His makeup is different each time. After he goes live, we see that he has studio makeup on which from a TV perspective makes the face a bit friendlier and warmer, but if seen in reality you would notice how heavily applied and smoothed out it is. Many moments just like this have me wanting to stop the movie and pour over every frame! The use of colour is also noteworthy it conveys so much in the colours that Arthur wears, the lighting changes hyper intensifies certain scenes.

The music adds something unique. It sounded something like a tribal drum played in an alleyway on empty paint cans, drums of oil, and trash cans. Every beat in the film is a new layer, a new sound cue, a new instrument. When story moments stack onto one another and Arthur is less like himself and more like the Joker, a new section is added to the theme. One standout scene is after an act of violence, Arthur loses himself somewhat into a dance in a public restroom. Almost like a mime he moves slowly around the area as sounds are drowned out by this slowly dancing clown and this ever more intense music with a slightly sad timbre. This carefully put together moment tells us so much about the character. 

It is rare, but sometimes I do wish I could view a film with just music characters and no dialogue, and Joker would lend itself beautifully to this. One more scene to point out that you may have seen in preview trailers is the dancing-down-the-stairs moment which is just amazing. The whole film could have stopped there and it would have been perfect. Its beautiful and triumphant and a show of Todd Phillips flair for combining music and cinematography together which is one thing I knew he would do well. 

If I had one “negative” thing to say about this iteration of Joker it is he never bares his teeth. While there are acts of brutal violence, it felt like he was missing the fact he could show those fangs, show how dangerous he is to other characters. We see a glimpse of how cruel and funny he can be but the character’s charisma dissipates under the heavy tone of the film.

A scene in the film involves a door lock and scissors (you will know when you see it), really one hundred percent felt like the character I wanted to see. After that scene, we see the Joker take a few steps back into emotional distress. He lacked the confidence I was expecting, but this is an original take so I won’t harp too much. I feel that the character can be summed up by a joke he makes in the film that is perceived to be in bad taste, but I think it has a deeper connotation: “Knock Knock?” “Who’s there?” “The police, your son died in a car accident”. 

This film is deep in so many different ways and you can truly feel similar feelings as from Taxi Driver and King of Comedy and a few other like films. These films have a predictable ending, but the director and actors wrestle that predictability or control of it from you. The film is fantastic and if you are a fan of deep character studies you should definitely check this movie. If your not maybe give it a miss as its content can weigh on you.

Performances across the board were some of the best I have ever seen. The music and use of original music combined with character were amazing. As a genuine story not so great as it takes some turns that kind of fall flat on its face. It also harkens back to Taxi Driver and King of Comedy too much where it feels patronising. 

To speak on the controversy over the film allegedly being dangerous, I feel as though we will never get over this hurdle of art causing or incentivising violence. While I can see how someone may relate to the plight of Arthur Fleck, blaming a work of art for baseless horrendous violence that affects the lives of so many is cowardly. It truly shows that we still aren’t ready to take that responsibility upon ourselves and reach out a hand to make this world a better place.

When it comes to the social commentary of the film, I am not going to comment either way. But I will give an example. We had an unfortunate mix up after seeing this film. Our car got locked in the underground car park which left us stranded in the city on a Friday night. We felt vulnerable and totally at the mercy of the city. As we walked to where we could get a ride home, we passed many people. Some drunk and some homeless who were sleeping in doorways of stores with little more than a cardboard box flattened in lieu of a mattress. 

At one point I looked at a man who sat outside the bank. As I glanced back, his head had fallen between his legs. “He just fell asleep, or is drunk — has to be.” I didn’t want to know about it. About what similar budget cuts and lack of facilities for mental care and social care had done to these people. Mental well being is as important as physical well being, but it is still a taboo topic when we should be open to discussing this by now. We don’t live in a world of ignorance depicted in Joker anymore. Joker hopefully has opened the discussion among people again. If a film can make you discuss the world and how we treat people and keep you thinking for days, it has provoked thought which is what art should do.

Rating:

Thomas C:

The longer I am away from this movie, the more it stays with me. Joaquin Phoenix plays a role that will haunt you for days to come. A must-see for both comic book fans, and movie fans alike.

Trailer: