Joker is the most realistic take on a comic book character I have ever seen.
This is the first time that the audience has ever seen a normal, human name and face for the Joker.
This Review will be split into four categories
- The film making
- Joaquin Phoenix’s performance
- The Plot
- The Verdict
The Film Making
First off, Joker is shot as if the pictures are flying off a page. Some shots are framed like comic book panels and it is truly amazing. For instance, there is a shot of Joker opening a pair of curtains to the fictional Live with Murray Franklin. Comics tell a story with a single image. This shot shows the Joker’s dream come true. He is backstage about to finally be in the spotlight, we see the production crew, the lights queuing him to the stage and his body language which shows his sense of victory. All this in one frame,
and the only way I can describe it is “truly epic.”
The direction is also very good. This is Todd Phillips’s best work since the first Hangover movie. The visuals are amazing and immersive. You see rats crawling through the subway, and it really captures how gross and grimy Gotham (New York) is and how difficult it is for the main character to live there. This is the first time in a Batman movie that Gotham looks like a real and terrible living environment.
I will give the filmmaking a 10/10
Joaquin Phoenix’s performance
I mentioned in the introduction briefly that this is the most realistic take on a comic book character ever and it is all because of the performance by Joaquin Phoenix. He has an emotional, special and encapsulating performance. You truly feel bad for Arthur Fleck before his transformation into the seminal joker, you believe that Joaquin is Arthur. Arthur is a lower class man in Gotham City (New York City), who starts a revolution against rich people. Arthur is a depressed and pathetic, middle aged, self-aware loner. Phoenix embodies the character. Phoenix took method to the next level when he lost almost fifty pounds in order to get a single shot and to seem more pathetic.
He seems to be really miserable and like he is going to hurt himself but then the audience is surprised when he pulls out a gun and shoots Murray. This whole time it has seemed like he is depressed, suicidal and dangerous to himself. As soon as he suits up and transforms into the joker he becomes a menace to society. When Arthur Fleck transforms into Joker he changes into this havok wrecking psychopath, that is happy and energized while he is taking on these acts of pure terror.
I will give Joaquin Phoenix’s performance a 10/10.
The Plot
Joker is a tale of misery in a declining economy and it is almost perfect, but there is one huge flaw.
The main flaw is the inclusion of Bruce Wayne/Batman as a child, it is confusing and overall messy. The movie would have been stronger if Joker was just about a regular guy with a mental disability. In the beginning you feel like you have struck cinematic gold. The movie is a slow burn character study on Athur Fleck. The audience goes so deep inside the character that you get disappointed when it turns into a Batman origin story.
Ultimately because of the Batman sub-plot the character gets lost and becomes a campy comic book villain. The film draws unnecessary connections to Batman and the franchise. The film would have been stronger if it only focused on the main character and not another character that will only be important in a future movie.
I will give the plot a 9/10.
Verdict
Still there is something about this film that resonates with the audience. This is clear by the way the now iconic “joker” stairs have become an instagram destination photo op and how people are remixing and remaking the joker trailer. I think this has to do with the setting: a crumbling New York City, filled with garbage and economic injustice. The setting plays as an allegory for our economic and environmental despair.
I will give Joker a 9.5/10, one of the best this year!
Levi Jacobson Reviews 