Joker Review
Joker is twisted, beautiful and brilliant. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is out of this world. His performance makes this movie. The mental illness of his Joker is very apparent and you see the character go down a path that makes the audience sympathize with him. Also the unreliable nature of his storytelling makes the film a head scratcher and leaves it open to several rewatches and discussions. This also makes the film extremely smart and thought provoking. I have never thought so much while watching a comic book adaptation before. Usually superhero movies are straight forward, turn your brain off popcorn flicks. But not Joker. Joker engages the audience to not only question what’s real, but to question morality and the times we live in today.
The violence in the film is shocking, brutal and feels very real. It doesn’t tone down the violence at all for the mainstream superhero fans, but also doesn’t have the exaggerated gore for Deadpool or Tarantino fans. The violence and gore feels real and that’s why it works so well. This is the most “believable” comic book film I’ve ever seen. Yes the violence feels real, but also the story of a mentally ill man, who feels like no one cares about him, who is constantly beaten up and getting in trouble at work. Eventually he breaks, and when he does, he becomes Joker, but this story could have been it’s own thing and not related to comic books at all and it would still be great. But alas I am very happy it is a Joker movie because it works so damn well.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
There were many things about this film I absolutely loved. I love the mystery of who Arthur Fleck’s father is. For a while we think it’s Thomas Wayne, but then you start doubting everything Fleck thinks he knows because of what Wayne said. But then Wayne could be lying. It’s a constant struggle for the truth and it highlights why Arthur is such an unreliable narrator. By the end, we think we know the truth about his father… but do we? The end of the film also makes you question the entire movie. Was the whole film part of Arthur's imagination or was he only imagining bits and pieces? The fact that Arthur deceived us into thinking he was dating his neighbor for a majority of the film contributes to our doubt. I've heard many different theories. Some think the whole movie was in his head, some think it was only the parts when people were kind to Arthur, others think everything after the car crash was in his head. Definitely debatable and definitely intriguing.
I also loved the fact that while Joker killed people, he only killed people that were mean to him, so because of that we do sympathize with him even though we are watching all of his horrific antics. Joker also inspired others to commit violence. In this way he indirectly killed the Waynes’. He was the catalyst to cause a city on edge to begin rioting which resulted in who knows how many acts of violence. This could all so easily be tied into the DCEU in something like Matt Reeves’ The Batman in 2021, All they have to do is mention that one of the villains (maybe a new Joker) was inspired heavily by Arther Fleck and it would be done. I would love that so so much.
Overall I absolutely loved Joker. It is so unique, fresh, and unlike any other comic book movie. Todd Phillips needs to do more films like this. I applaud Phillips, Phoenix’s performance, and WB/DC for taking a risk on this movie, and never backing down despite the controversy.
