Joker features a riveting, fully realized and Oscar-worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix. This means that without its DC comics elements, Joker would still make an engrossing character study. Besides being the best Batman universe film ever made, it’s like an icing on the cake for batman fans. I probably will leave Joker in the same disturbingly restless state I was in: ready to argue about it for years afterwards.
It is clear that Todd Phillips’ Joker takes its spirit and style from classic ‘70s and ‘80s films like Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, A Clockwork Orange, and Dog Day Afternoon which are as old as time itself hence cannot be avoided. It was known as “Fear City” when rampant crime,l corruption ,economic crises & social ills were at their peak.
The place is one of despair and griminess with vast wealth gaps among classes of people along with lawlessness growing out of control. It can be said that this realistic portrayal turns a typically fantastical place into something familiar; however, Joker’s hyper-realism does not merely come from the recognizable setting but from what it allegorically represents making it such a believable film timely worth talking about long after you have left the cinema. While set in 1981, Joker is definitely about our own dangerously violent present time.
By taking place during the early 1980s (circa), Joker becomes both comic book versions of traditional Martin Scorsese or Sidney Lumet movies and removes modern technology that surely would have arrested such a lunatic earlier than later. There were times when there was smoking everywhere – including hospitals – no ubiquitous security cameras or metal detectors around, & none wore seat belts while driving. While bad they could get worse — joker was waiting dynamite match.
Arthur Fleck (played by Joaquin Phoenix) delivers an unnerving performance as he portrays Arthur’s mental illness. Arthur is the kind of person who has never been lucky in his life or had a happy day. This is the part where I should stop talking about how and why Arthur becomes the Joker persona and finds liberation and joy because it’s a film to be experienced with an open mind and no spoilers –instead, just say that this incarnation of the Joker represents what happens when a society normalizes its casual cruelness without empathy. We make our own monsters.
Joker as a movie does not propose any one individual or class apart from being an indictment of collective societal indifference to citizen welfare. The poor are meaner than the rich, even though you may feel sympathy for them. Arthur suffers emotional and physical harm at some point perpetrated by individuals at all levels including their institutional settings. If Travis Bickle referred to himself as “God’s lonely man” then surely Arthur Fleck could be Gotham’s only man. Ultimately, Arthur seeks human connection; something he won’t find tragically until he wears his smile and exposes the city’s hypocrisy with violence.
Joker, the film’s main protagonist is someone we should all feel sorry for but by no means forgive his increasing evil acts. Although in real life there are some people and incidents that can be identified with the transformation of Arthur to a violent criminal, rather than being depicted as a sane person who was turned mad by society.
This cautious balance is achieved not only by Todd Phillips’ fine direction and strong vision but also through Joaquin Phoenix who gives an unforgettable performance. He seems to suffer physical pain from his uncontrollable laughter; he is skinny as a smuggled bird, with his troubled face etched in severe lines. There’s something healthier, more vibrant – dare I say happier – about him when he becomes Joker than there ever was when he lived as Arthur. In this portrayal of Arthur, Phoenix does an excellent job of depicting these fine details and their relationships with others that reveal so much about the tormented man inside.
Throughout nearly every scene we see Phoenix in tight shots that make me feel like I am trapped inside his mind with him. Even though Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy give credible performances in their small roles here or there, it is really Phoenix’s movie and he pulls out all the stops.
This movie wisely embraces the ambiguity of its title character despite appearing to be an origin story. The movie’s depiction of Arthur growing more delusional — okay, horrific —and violent as things go on reflects his increased mental disturbance.
Phillips (with co-writer Scott Silver) made a movie that invites second viewings; one of its strengths is how anyone can argue convincingly about what happened for real or what was just imagined while none will be wrong. As far as fictions least reliable narrator goes’ this would be fitting.
Conclusion
Joker isn’t just a great comic book film—it’s simply great cinema. It doesn’t answer any of the troubling questions it poses about a vicious society in decline. Joaquin Phoenix’s total commitment and Todd Phillips’ brilliant but loose adaptation of the DC source material make Joker a movie that will leave fans of comic books and those who know nothing about them alike disturbed and emotionally engaged in all the right ways.
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