Joker Couches Brilliant Performances In A Troubling Story
I had many concerns about Joker going into this screening. I was worried about its portrayal of mental health, the political climate in which it’s being released, and some of the rhetoric that Todd Phillips had used while talking about the film. Fear not dear readers, I’ve made it through the screening and my opinions on the film are… well… it’s complicated.
On a technical level this film is perfectly adequate. It is well performed, and Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, the titular Joker and Robert DeNiro as Murray Franklin, his late night talk show hosting idol are scene stealers, and the cinematography is exemplary. The music choices are strong if somewhat cloying and the plot overall is OK, but lurching. This film is a slow burn. We meet Arthur, see his life and then witness his slow descent into homicidal madness. It takes a long time, and there are moments where I was legitimately wondering if we would ever reach the depths of this insanity. It dragged and it wasn’t perfect but it was a haunting, destructive characterization. This movie is also ultraviolent at times, with a body count that seems low compared to Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s Batman film but more intimate. Arthur’s violence is not stylized and much of it is filmed up close. It’s not choreographed heavily either, it feels spontaneous and awkward and it helps to sell that this man is not a slick villain, he’s an unwell man with violent tendencies.
Even though this film is well made there are some things about the film that I feel need to be addressed. The film at times seems like a condemnation of therapy and mental health care. Joker shoehorns in many mental health disorders and buzzwords and they often feel included to show that the filmmakers understand mental illness. If the mistreatment and sometimes tasteless humorizing of mental health bothers you then you may want to sit this one out. The film is violent, but in a way that feels claustrophobic. There was a moment in the third act where I flinched, not because of the violence itself but because I was expecting to feel blood splatter.
Social commentary lip service
The film is also set in a city full of political unrest and upheaval, and that seems to be targeting our current political and social situation in the U.S. But much like how Rent is set during the AIDS crisis, Joker fails to make much of a comment on it. The line from the trailer “Is it just me or are things getting crazier out there?” seems to be the film’s only take on the subject until the very tail end, which I won’t comment on due to spoilers and my own mounting nausea at its implications. None of the motivation of the character is based in this turmoil, only what happens to him personally. It feels like it may be trying to be a commentary on the present political climate but it puts so little stock in its own gimmick that it doesn’t make much of a splash at all except as a set piece.
This film may have two of my favorite sequences in any comic book-based film I’ve seen. I will not give spoilers but I will mention that one takes place on a train and one is set to the Cream song White Room. (In possibly its best cinematic use to date). The final scene of the film seems half baked and left me and my viewing companions with raised eyebrows and genuine confusion. It honestly negated much of the positive reaction I had to the scenes before it. It landed so oddly and felt tacked on in a way that was jarring and lessened the sickening blow of the scene preceding it.
Before I get into my final thoughts and rating I would feel remiss if I didn’t talk about the general feeling in the theater for this screening. Before we were even allowed in we were told there would be enhanced security for this screening at the studio’s behest. Every time someone stood up during the screening, and during one particularly tense sequence it seemed that many of the younger reviewers in the theater were preparing to assume the active shooter drill position we’d learned in school. This film makes no qualms about its association with violent lone wolf purveyors of violence — in fact the phrase “lone wolf” is used in the film. It is telling a compelling story about a fictional version of one of the names we hear on the news between atrocities, but he’s the hero. The director has said that he wants this film to trigger folks and that’s what he’s done. He’s made the shock jock of films and I’ll be interested to see what its staying power looks like.
Would I recommend this film? Yes. It is too well made of a film with two excellent performances that I feel need to be seen to be believed. Will I watch it again? Maybe. For the performances, perhaps. I’m not sure that it will affect me as strongly now that I know the layout of the film. That’s the thing about shock, right? It doesn’t work nearly so well if you know it’s coming.
Joker (Warner Bros., R, 122 minutes) gets a 3 out of 5.
