Review: Joker

Arthur Fleck (a perfectly cast Joaquin Phoenix) is an ex-mental patient who barely makes a living as a clown in Gotham City. Living with his infirmed mother (Frances Conroy, looking about 80 years old for like the last 30 years it seems), Arthur suffers from several illnesses, including a nervous compulsion to break out into uncontrollable laughter. He dreams of being a famous comedian monikered ‘Joker’, and hopefully one day appearing on his mother’s favourite late night show, hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro, recalling “The King of Comedy”). Unfortunately, Arthur gets beaten up by teenagers, he is about to be out of a job, running out of meds that frankly barely help anyway, and then he gets assaulted by Wall Street jerks on a train. Arthur’s about to snap, and he wasn’t healthy to begin with. Zazie Beetz plays a young lady in Arthur’s building whom he takes an interest in, Brett Cullen plays some rich guy named Thomas Wayne that no one’s heard of.

 

Although I think on their day, Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro are outstanding actors, I didn’t especially look forward to seeing this controversial 2019 film from Todd Phillips (The man behind “Old School” and the “Hangover” films) and co-writer Scott Silver (co-writer of the rather overrated “The Fighter”). I knew going in that it’d be taking influence from Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy” (with a touch of Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” for good measure). The former I think is extremely well-acted, but overrated and with a troubling ending. The latter I found tiring after a while and one-note. Now here’s Todd Phillips taking a comic book character and setting him loose in a Scorsese-infused world. If you’ve read my other comic book movie reviews, you’ll know I’m not generally a fan of comic book or superhero films that take gritty or real-world approaches. I loathe “Iron Man” largely for its real-world Middle Eastern arms dealing themes (Robert Downey Jr’s counterproductive snarky flippancy being the other issue). So I was worried I wouldn’t like this film’s approach – especially when you think about the real-life Joker-inspired mass shootings. Do we really want a Joker does Travis Bickle? Do we forget John Hinkley already?

 

So yeah…I was all set to have an uncomfortable time here. Turns out, I actually think this is one of the strongest films of 2019 that I’ve seen so far. Even though some of my fears are at play here, Phillips has largely gotten away with it. It’s a fascinating and clever film, bolstered by yet another terrific performance by Phoenix. Best of all, even though I have little doubt that this will result in sequels that better connect it to the world of Batman, the film largely strips back most of that stuff. For the most part, you can view this as being outside of the established world of Batman that you know and accept this as its own thing. In fact, I think it works best if you view it as a unique, darkly comedic pastiche of Gotham and Scorsese. At least I hope I was supposed to find the opening scene funny, where Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck gets the snot beaten out of him by young punks. Meanwhile, instead of a taxi rank community, here we get a community of clowns. It’s hilarious. To me, the humour is crucial and putting some of my fears and concerns to rest here in terms of the mixture of comic book and real-world, as well as the lack of originality. There’s a lot more here than just stealing from Scorsese. I mean, outside of maybe the porno theatre scene perhaps, was “Taxi Driver” funny? No, I don’t think so. So Phillips and Scott Silver set their film apart in tone for one thing, and by grafting on the character/iconography of the Joker, it’s a weird pastiche all of its own. But the humour is very, very dark and won’t be for all tastes, obviously (For instance, I found the bit where the gun falls out at a kids hospital to be absolutely hilarious. Your mileage may differ).

 

When it’s his wont, Joaquin Phoenix is one of the best actors around, and he’s pitch-perfect casting here as sad, disturbed Arthur Fleck. In a weird way, this film is like a successful version of whatever the fuck he was attempting in that whole bizarro “I’m Not Here” film and associated press junket. It’s got that same uncomfortable and uncompromisingly awkward vibe, but unlike in that self-indulgent mess, it suits the film perfectly and absolutely works. While I say the film works best as a black comedy, make no mistake: Joaquin Phoenix is not really playing the role for laughs. That’s absolutely the correct approach, the film is funny enough without him being overt about it. He actually gets this sad, pathetic guy 100%, in a virtually perfect performance. Like Jack Nicholson in “The Shining”, Phoenix’s Arthur is already pretty disturbed when we meet him, but I’m one of seemingly few who love Kubrick’s “The Shining” because Jack was already disturbed. It’s more believable to me (or at least easier to go along with) when a disturbed person gets even more disturbing, and that’s what we get here with Phoenix’s Arthur. I loved the idea of Arthur having an actual condition that produces uncontrollable laughter. It makes for a very sad and uncomfortable character, played by a very unpredictable actor in his third best performance to date (Behind “Her” and “The Master”). It’s a very tense, awkward, and uncomfortable performance and film in the very best way.

 

I wasn’t quite as taken with Robert De Niro’s performance as the late night host, to be honest. He kinda had to play the part given what it was inspired by, but I’m not sure De Niro’s anywhere near the right guy to play a late night TV host. Having said that, part of the issue may be that De Niro’s playing the part badly on purpose, because it's kind of a gag. I think Murray’s meant to be more of a celebrity in Gotham rather than the #1 late night TV host in all of America (He’s more Joe Franklin than Johnny Carson, in other words). So perhaps I’m being a tad harsh. Still, it’s not an especially funny joke if it’s meant to be one (Unless you think De Niro’s appearances on “SNL” have been hilarious), in an otherwise amusing film. As for the ending, it’s pretty much what you expect it to be, but I needn’t have worried, as this film does it a lot more satisfactorily than the film it is inspired by (They don’t quite leave the same message, for one thing).

 

Fascinating, especially if taken as a disturbing, pop culture-infused dark comedy. It’s less an alternate take on the “Batman” universe than it is a Tarantino-style re-appropriating of established characters for a new purpose, with very dark humour. It results in something new and unique, and compulsively watchable. Phoenix is outstanding, and the film works a heck of a lot better than I expected. I don’t want every comic book movie to be like this, and I kinda understand the controversy with the Joker character and real-life incidents, but I’ve got few complaints about this one. Hell, it’s one of the best films of the year to say the least. In my view it’s better than “The King of Comedy”, the “Dark Knight” trilogy, and definitely better than anything director Phillips has made before.

 

Rating: B