Joker (2019) Movie Review
Joker (2019) Movie Review
Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill aspiring stand-up comedian with a day job as a party clown. Fleck lives with his mother (Frances Conroy) in an apartment in crime-ridden Gotham City. After he is attacked by street thugs while on the job, Fleck is given a gun for self-protection by his coworker (Glenn Fleshler). Not long after, he gets fired from his job for bringing the gun inside the children’s hospital where is performing. In shambles, Fleck takes the subway home, and witnesses three wealthy businessmen harassing a woman. His illness causes him to laugh hysterically, and he is attacked by the businessmen for doing so. In self-defense, he shoots and kills all of them, and thus begins his major downward spiral.
Footage of Fleck’s awkward stand-up comedy routine is eventually aired on a popular late-night talk show hosted by Fleck’s long-time idol, Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), and Fleck gets an invitation to appear on the show. In the meantime, Fleck learns he was adopted by his mother while she worked for wealthy businessman Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) and that he was abused as a child by her and her boyfriend. In a rage, Fleck visits his mother, who is now in the hospital, and suffocates her to death. After learning of his mother’s death, two of his former coworkers show up to his apartment to provide moral support, but Fleck kills one of them. In the police chase following the murder, a bystander is shot by one of the cops chasing Fleck, and a riot breaks out. Fleck makes it to his talk show appearance on time, and confesses to the subway murders on live television, becoming the voice of Gotham’s voiceless underground population fed up with discrimination against them by the wealthy elite.
Joker is a movie that has received much praise as well as a bit of backlash since its release in 2019, and it’s not hard to see why. This is a movie that tries to be profound and intellectual on some level, and tries to get certain social and political statements across to its audience, but I’m not convinced it succeeds. It never becomes clear to me whether Arthur Fleck is someone I should sympathize with. On one hand, he constantly finds himself subject to harassment and startling cruelty from almost everyone around him, including his mother, who allowed him to be horrifically abused as a child. On the other hand, he never seems like someone worth rooting for, either. He does take care of his elderly mother for most of the film, but other than that, he’s a lunatic, a stalker, and eventually, a psycopathic murderer. I understand that the main character of every movie doesn’t need to be a “good person,” it’s just that this seems to contradict one of the main points this film is trying to make, which is that mentally ill people are mistreated and dehumanized in our society. If Joker was about a mentally ill person who generally is trying to do good in this world, it would be easy to root for them when they get picked on by everyone else. Instead, Fleck is a menace who consistently endangers those around him. He brings a gun inside a children’s hospital for no reason, approaches people – including kids – that he doesn’t know inappropriately, stalks a lonely single mother and breaks into her apartment, and literally kills numerous people. Then, the moral of the story seems to be that society needs to help people with mental illness more. This isn’t a bad message, but the film’s portrayal of its own character with an unnamed mental illness is that he’s a weirdo killer who will blow if you push him the wrong way. Maybe I’m missing something, but to me, Joker seems confused by its primary message. If the mental illness message is the main dish, Joker serves the audience some undercooked sides of “question authority” and “eat the rich.” Every wealthy character is endlessly rude and cold-hearted to the point of being unrealistic. I don’t need to get super deep into the politics of the film, because neither does the film. There are ideas of nihilism and anarchy to be found, but actually exploring what’s right and wrong about these things? Forget it. There isn’t much exploration in terms of the morality of the capitalist antagonists of the movie; we simply watch as street riots become hopelessly out of control and people trying to defuse the situation are killed simply for doing their job. And this is supposed to be deep.
While Joker doesn’t explore its themes much beyond the surface, I have to give it up for pretty much everything else. This is an impressive movie on a technical level. The good camerawork and editing complement Fleck’s downward spiral. There is one moment in particular that stands out – where the camera zooms in on Fleck as he smiles and listens to his boss while his boss’s voice becomes fainter and fainter. This is effective in conveying the level of Fleck’s absolute derangement. I also have to say, as someone who usually barely notices the musical scores in movies (sorry?), the score definitely helps ramp up the tension in a way that deserves praise. There is one part where Fleck is following single mother Sophie around the city, and the way the score accompanies it, you’d think it was a scene out of a horror movie. I also like this version of Gotham City and the vibe it gives to the film; while Joker is set in 1981, the movie seems to have a time period-less feel to it that I think works well with the story. Joker manages to stay assuredly entertaining and never become dull throughout its runtime; this is largely due to the centerpiece performance of Joaquin Phoenix, which is easily the highlight of the movie. It is clear that Phoenix took this role seriously; he turns every small thing about the character into something memorable: his mannerisms, the way he speaks, the way he looks at things, the way he runs and moves, the list goes on. Phoenix just looks crazy in his role; every time Fleck is onscreen there’s something unnerving about his presence. He makes the entire movie kind of stressful to watch – which is, I think, exactly what the filmmakers were going for. Todd Phillips, of Hangover trilogy fame, does an awesome job directing the material he co-wrote. This is one of those movies where words aren’t always necessary to clue audiences in; the camera can simply show Phoenix’s facial expressions, which speak a thousand words.
All in all, Joker is a memorable film mostly because of Phoenix’s electrifying performance. Maybe I’m being too critical of the way it tries to get its political/social messages across, but I found it to be somewhat hypocritical to tell the audience that people with mental illness need to be treated more fairly, and then turn around and use the main character’s mental illness as something we’re supposed to be afraid of. If you’re looking for a truly dark comic-book movie that feels nothing like your average MCU film, Joker is what you’re looking for. (Although I would prefer The Batman, personally.) This is a film heavily inspired by the work of Martin Scorsese, so if you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll most likely get something out of this, too. While I didn’t fall in love with Joker, I will admit it mostly works and is worth watching, even if only for Phoenix’s performance. As a grade, I would give it a B. Apparently there’s a sequel in the making now? It feels like a stand-alone film, but I guess we’ll see what the next one has in store.
