Review: Joker
Posted Oct 5, 2019 05:00:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Joker has been released amidst critical acclaim on the festival circuit, but under a cloud of controversy for its dark retelling of the titular character's origin story.
You expect this type of climate surrounding a Tarantino film, but no, this comes from the director of Old School and The Hangover: Todd Phillips. The film itself is a very different beast all together.
It centres on Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) before he dons his comic book persona. As Warner Brothers continues to work out its DC cinematic Universe, this film stands out as an outlier not set within the universe, but as a standalone movie; a graphic novel as to a comic book.
If the film was set in any universe, it would be in the movies of Martin Scorsese, namely Taxi Driver. Just replace Travis Bickle with Arthur Fleck.
Gotham City is dealing with garbage piling up as the union is striking, people are protesting the rich, while social services are being cut. It's a tense setting where we find Phoenix's character, working as a clown flipping a sale sign, before being jumped by a random group of teenagers.
There's a certain desire to one up and out do previous incarnations of such famous characters. And with a character like the Joker, that could mean being meaner, grittier, and more shocking. If you seen or even read about Jared Leto's take on the character during Suicide Squad, that kind of thinking leads to more grating performance.
Luckily, that isn't the case with Joaquin Phoenix.
His turn as the character is definitely dark, but leaning on a realistic take of how someone could turn into the Clown Prince of Crime. As opposed to Taxi Driver where the film makes it known it's character's mind set is warped and violent, here Phillip's positions it as a fault of the system that does not care for those who fall through the cracks.
The Joker is usually described as 'crazy', but more in the colloquial sense of the word than any actual psychiatric evaluation. The film, meanwhile, places it front and centre. Arthur Fleck is on medication, talking with a social worker, and his trademark laugh is the result of brain damage.
There's something to be said of the film's portrayal of mental illness and the violence Fleck exhibits, unavoidable given the character, and they walk a very thin line with Fleck.
Phoenix portrays him not as a charismatic gang leader like Jack Nicholson or like Heath Ledger, who seems to have a twisted world view to share.
The film definitely has something to say on the class system, but Arthur is a victim, though you will start to lose sympathy as he grows to enjoy being unhinged.
Taking some notes from graphic novel 'The Killing Joke' Arthur Fleck has aspirations of being a comedian, despite his inability to get over his own laughter; let alone his inability to tell a joke. He comes across as a child in a man's body, struggling to understand others; too naive in some cases; too selfish in other ways.
It's a fascinating performance as you feel for Fleck, but repulsed and angry with him in how he solves his issues.
Hopefully that's the case for you, because this is a long film. While there are other characters involved, the film is a character study of the Joker. You are trapped in his head space for this movie, which may feel plodding if you aren't invested in the character by the time the first act ends.
Joker proves to be a breath of fresh air and a well deserving respite from what you've come to expect from comic book movies. Joaquin Phoenix's performance will make you wish they could somehow bring his Joker into the main DC cinematic universe.
I don't know how you fit him into the same world as Aquaman and Wonder Woman, but it goes to show how powerful his performance is.
For Joker show times and other films currently playing, you can check out the Landmark Cinemas website.