Joker Review

Ten years ago Todd Phillips directed the first of his Hangover trilogy, now he's directed Joker. Which has resulted in divisive reviews, walkouts, and even cinemas refusing to show it. Since I have seen it and have just about the right amount of information on it, let me lay it all out for you.

Firstly, it's set in 1981, in Gotham city obviously, but has no ties to any particular Batman story. Instead it goes for more of a not-so-subtle Scorsese influence.

The main character named Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a clown for hire by day, and aspiring comedian by night. He has a condition that causes him to burst into fits of laugher at any time, and a series of setbacks in his professional life, and some shocks in his personal life, send him down a path that sees him turn into one of the most iconic villains of all time.

This film sets out to be different from all the other ones based on DC properties, and it succeeds, there's very little action, at least until the final few minutes; the fun sense of humour is gone; and it's replaced by a very dark and morbid one. The whole film's aesthetic is also very gritty, bleak and depressive, from the barely-lit interiors to the city of little to no sunshine.  And of course there's the violence - which was minimal. And what does occur does feel like it's only there for shock value.  But there are movies that have more violence in them, but just don't take it as seriously as this film does. If you want an idea of how graphically violent this movie, I can sum it up like this. It's less graphic than the film that influenced it most (Taxi Driver). All this is somewhat impressive, but due to DC studios' bad track record with their films, from which they have only recently started to recover, they have been up against the ever-growing popularity of MARVEL. It also can't help but feel pretentious and desperate. They have made it clear they want to do something very different with their films, but given the response to this one, maybe they should re-evaluate their strategy and take less drastic and smaller steps.

Phoenix isn't the only big name here, there's also Zazie Beetz as a single mother who may or may not be Arthur's girlfriend. She only appears in a handful of scenes, but plays her role well enough. There's also Brett Cullen who gives us a unique portrayal of Thomas Wayne. He comes across as quite capable in the role, but looking closer there's no escaping the fact this part was meant for Alec Baldwin. Bringing in Cullen as a last minute replacement, he feels like he's imitating Baldwin. Bryan Tyree Henry also has a role as an asylum clerk that feels thankless, it could have been played by anyone so it comes as no surprise that he seems uninterested and plays the part in a quite passive way.

Now on to the man himself, Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck AKA Joker. Phoenix immerses himself completely in the role with admirable dedication, but just seems very unlikeable and hard to sympathise with in any way. It also doesn't help that he goes off the rails so many times and so quickly that investment in his performance is nearly  impossible.

Moving on to the script written by the director and Scott Silver, it's clear the script understands that this is about one main character and his standalone story in a very well-known world. Apart from some character names, other pieces of that world are used in surprising moderation. But then the problems show. This film's Scorsese influence eventually turns it into a rip-off a Taxi Driver, mainly due to the fact that both films deal with men slowly drifting into insanity. But the key difference with the two is, the protagonist of Taxi Driver actually seemed like he had at least a shred of decency in him, Arthur Fleck has none.

And just to bring the Scorsese connection full circle, Robert De Niro co-stars as a chat show host, who might just be the film's only likeable character and he's basically playing a homage to a character he played in another Scorsese film (The King of Comedy). He even admitted to that in interview.

On to the score composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, and she has tried to use her skill as a cellist to create a score that's unsettling, and keeps the audience on its toes. But after a while you adjust and it loses the unsettling feeling that it had in the beginning.

This film claims to have a message about what role society might have in creating a psychopath like Joker, but if that is the message, it's not as clear as it thinks it is.

The way I view Joker is this, its got ambitions that maybe cross the line into being pretentious, dedicated but too off the rails and an unlikeable performance from the lead actor. And while promising its own story, it has maybe taken a bit much from the films that influenced it. As I said before, is this the way DC studios want to move forward? Maybe they should re-evaluate their position first.

In future if anyone ever asks me what I thought of this film, the only answer I can hope to give is that it gave me only negative thoughts.

C-