*Deep, beleaguered sigh*
We sure do live in a society.
Joker
Director: Todd Phillips
Writers: Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
Music By: Hildur Gudnadottir
Rated R (Contains chaos and agents thereof)
Arthur Fleck is a sad man. He’s barely making ends meet with a crappy clown gig, he spends all his free time caring for his sick mother, and he has a severe mental illness that, among other things, makes him laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate times. To make matters worse, he lives in Gotham: an ugly, broken-down city which appears to be exclusively populated by psychopaths. Nothing seems to go right for this unfunny aspiring comedian–until one magical day, when he discovers the healing power of murder!
Over the past few years, I’ve normally tried to go see just about every superhero-related movie that comes out in theatres, especially if it’s from DC. But I had no desire to pay theatre prices to see Joker, for many reasons. The biggest one is that I’m deeply skeptical about solo supervillain movies in general (Venom did nothing to change my mind on this point), and out of all the comic book villains I know, the Joker seems like the worst possible candidate for a solo film. As the most overexposed comic character aside from Batman himself, the Clown Prince of Crime has been reinterpreted countless ways over the years, but personally, I only find him effective as a villain when he has no concrete backstory or sympathetic motivations whatsoever (which is his most common portrayal). He’s a clown who commits crimes because he thinks it’s funny. That’s it. Giving him a sympathetic backstory destroys the only thing that ever made him scary–the only trait that separates him from the countless other colourful psychos with a sense of humour that infest popular media. This, combined with the ridiculous level of media hype about the “shocking violence” and “dangerous ideas” of the film (and the equally ridiculous backlash from its fans), made me want to stay away for a while.
But now it’s up for an Oscar, and more importantly, it’s available at Redbox, so here we go.
Let me start by saying that, in many ways, this does seem like a well-made movie. It looks beautiful, I like its retro style, and its dark, solemn soundtrack went a long way towards making me think that things happening in the story had some kind of significance. Joaquin Phoenix does an unnervingly good job creating his character, and as much as I hate to admit it, he probably deserves his Oscar nomination for his Joker laugh alone. I also appreciate that the movie at least tried to raise awareness of the plight of people in our society with mental illness and other disadvantages. I mean…you gotta give points for trying.
My main issue with the movie is its script, and, related to that, certain aspects of its story. The actors do their level best to make the dialogue sound natural, but it’s so heavy-handed that it’s often hard to take any of it seriously–especially when the movie really, really wants us to. It’s painfully obvious that the filmmakers wanted to make a point about class conflict and mental health issues in the real world, but the problem is that this movie’s setting feels less like the real world than the cartoon version of Gotham in Batman: The Animated Series. And that one had zeppelins!
The very first scene in the movie shows Arthur being attacked by a gang of teenagers, who decide to beat him up for no reason whatsoever. From that point on, every single person Arthur interacts with treats him with rudeness and absurd levels of cruelty–from random strangers on a bus to his therapist to his own mother. The abuse he endures is so over-the-top that it often crosses the line into being comical. Gotham itself is equally unsubtle. There doesn’t seem to be a single surface in the entire city free from graffiti, none of the lights work properly, and every building (except one fancy movie theatre) looks like it ought to be condemned. We never get a reason for why things are this way–just some vague talk about the rich not caring about the poor. It’s cartoon-level worldbuilding: one-dimensional and completely disconnected from reality. Then we add characters delivering such on-the-nose lines as “If it were me dying on the sidewalk, you’d walk right over me,” and the whole movie starts to feel like what I kind of feared it would be: a cinematic version of the Joker society meme.
Let me reiterate that I thought the “news” articles back in October that insinuated this movie would cause violence were ridiculous. I don’t believe that people are mindless drones who just copy whatever they see in movies, so I’m not surprised that nobody went berserk at any Joker screenings. However, I do think the most obvious “moral” in this movie is unhealthy, and probably didn’t do anything to help the people it was trying to champion. That moral, as stated pretty blatantly by the Joker in a rant, is that society has failed the poor and mentally ill, and their frustration at being left behind is what causes things like mass shootings and riots. But much like this movie’s version of Gotham, that’s such a surface-level interpretation of the real-world issues that it would seem more at home in a kids’ cartoon than an adult movie. Yes, real-life treatment of mental health in America leaves a lot to be desired, but just to start with the obvious, not all mass shooters or rioters are poor or mentally ill. And not all people with mental illnesses are violent–in fact, based on what I’ve seen and read, the majority aren’t. Framing the Joker’s violence as a direct result of his untreated mental illness seems more like an attempt to justify his actions than anything else, and it’s kind of offensive to all the people going through similar struggles without resorting to violence. If you’re trying to raise awareness of a real-life problem, why not make a movie set in the real world, instead of a caricature?
I have a feeling a fan of Joker might answer, “because it’s a comic book movie.” But I also take issue with this movie as a comic adaptation. Mostly because it isn’t one. If you changed the title, set it in New York or a fictional city like Metropolis, and changed the names of Thomas and Bruce Wayne, nothing about the story would change and no one would recognize it as something inspired by a comic book. In fact, this origin story for the Joker wouldn’t make any sense in regular Batman canon. The only solid, recognizable reference the story makes to the Batman comics is…(SPOILER)
SHOWING THE WAYNE MURDER FOR THE FIVE HUNDRED THOUSANDTH TIME!!! I honestly thought I was going to watch a Batman-related movie without having to see that again, but nope. It’s there, pearls and all.
Anyway, this is by no means a terrible movie. I could imagine it being enjoyable to someone with less of an attachment to superhero comics and more of an appreciation for pretty cinematography. But with barely any connection to its source material and only the most one-dimensional political commentary, for me there’s nothing to separate Joker from the many, many other stories I’ve seen about troubled men getting pushed over the edge into murder. I’ve seen it done worse. I’ve often seen it done better (including in some of the other Best Picture nominees this year). But in the immortal words of the Dark Knight:
“I’ve heard it before. And it wasn’t funny the first time.”
Grade: C
Wizard at the Clicks 