This is a tough one to review. For starters, don’t go into this expecting a comic book movie. If you are expecting something like Venom or Suicide Squad, you’re going to have a bad time. This is not what I was expecting because I brushed off the filmmakers’ claims that this would be a very dark and serious movie and unlike any other comic adaptation. I had heard that shit before. Hell, Venom was supposed to be a dark, R-rated film and that turned out to be a crock of shit. But these people weren’t fucking around. The most common comparison that I’ve heard is also the best comparison that I can think of and that’s Taxi Driver. I have also spoken with people that compared it to Requiem for a Dream and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. I think the Requiem and Henry comparisons are a bit much (I think Requiem for a Dream may be the scariest movie ever made and its not even a goddamn horror movie), but those comparisons give you the idea of the tone here and that tone is fucking bleak. Joker is an unpleasant, uncomfortable film. That doesn’t make it a bad film, but it also doesn’t necessarily mean that it should have been a Joker movie.
Joker is essentially a character study akin to Scorsese’s old movies (the aforementioned Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, etc.). Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill man that spends his time generally getting his ass kicked by life. He lives with his sick mother in a dingy little apartment, he regularly gets jumped and assaulted on the streets, the government is cutting funds to the programs that allow him to get medication and therapy and his aspirations to become a stand-up comedian are going nowhere. This movie is essentially 2 hours of watching a man slowly snap under the weight of his illness and miserable life. There is no theatricality, no humor, no cartoonish plot to take over the world. It’s just a ticking timebomb of a human being slowly counting down the seconds to detonation.
The best way for me to do this is to first discuss it as a standalone film and then discuss it as a film within the Batman mythology. It’s unfair to judge the movie entirely within the confines of that mythology, but its also disingenuous to ignore it. As a standalone drama, as a character study about the consequences of mental illness, I think that Joker works very well. This is honestly a really sad movie, both because of the nightmare of this guy’s life and the inevitable fact that things will not get better for him. Because of the very title of the movie, we know his destiny and there is a gloomy inevitability to it. Usually movie theaters are filled with laughter or applause during comic book movies. You could have heard a fucking pin drop in the theater when I saw this and the place was nearly full.
The film’s depressing mood is derived from a combination of the production design and Phoenix’s performance. This movie feels almost claustrophobic at times. This is seemingly set in the 70s or early 80s, a time when America’s big cities were not the glossy tourist traps that they have largely now become. The streets are filled with strip clubs, hookers and addicts, essentially recreating New York’s 42nd Street of that era (though it was actually filmed in Newark, which says a lot about my daily commute to work). Gotham is also in the middle of a garbage strike, so the streets are filled with trash. The world of this movie just feels gross; if you ever walked down these streets and met the Joker, you would want to take a shower just as much as you would want to run away.
Joaquin Phoenix is just uncomfortable to watch in this, and I mean that as a compliment. With every facial expression and gesture, he just seems off in an increasingly threatening way while also bringing a sense of empathy to the role. It’s not that he is a good man, but that he might have been a good man if he hadn’t been dealt such a bad hand in life. I try not to acknowledge any controversy in my reviews (especially controversies manufactured by the media), but I don’t agree with the idea that this film is glorifying the Joker. I don’t see how any sane person could watch this and view Joker as an aspirational figure. He may not be a traditional or straightforward villain, but this is more of a cautionary tale than an inspirational one (though people seem to make that mistake with Scarface, so who the fuck know how some assholes will interpret things). The fact that such a conversation is taking place is a testament to the complexity of the performance, though. It is pointless to compare Phoenix to Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger. They both played a comic book villain and they did a damn good job of it. This is something else entirely, for better or worse.
As much as I admire it as a standalone film, this falls apart when considered as part of the Batman mythology. If you are looking for any sort of fun, then keep on walking. The Joker is one of the more frightening comic book villains, but Jesus fucking Christ, I don’t think he had to be this goddamn bleak. This is just not how I picture the character. The idea of giving the Joker an origin is also a major point of contention with comic book fans, as one of the fundamental aspects of the Joker is that we’re not sure where he came from. This film borrows from the classic comic book The Killing Joke in the Joker’s backstory, but that comic made it clear that the origin it offered was only a possibility. As the Joker said, “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.” There is a very plausible interpretation of the film that posits that the events of the movie are also just one possibility being put forth in the Joker’s head, which strengthen the inspirational ties with Killing Joke, but that is up for debate. Lastly, the attempts to link this movie to the broader Batman mythology are downright irritating and feel like they are shoehorned into the film at the request of the studio. I’m not going to spoil it, but there is one scene in the movie that is really going to irritate you as a comic fan because it makes no sense in continuity. You will know what scene I’m talking about immediately, trust me.
I’ve written over 1,000 words about this movie and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. This is a very well-made film, but it doesn’t represent its source material very well and is essentially the antithesis of fun. I almost wish they had titled this Jester and removed all references to Batman characters, but then it probably wouldn’t be making hundreds of millions of dollars. If you want to see a fun comic book movie, then watch something from Marvel. If you like 70s style character studies and crime films, then head out for a sad time at the movies with Joker.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_(2019_film)#/media/File:Joker_(2019_film)_poster.jpg
