{"id":7502,"date":"2019-10-28T21:36:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T02:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/?page_id=7502"},"modified":"2022-08-26T05:37:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T10:37:03","slug":"joker-2019-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/retromaggedon.com\/index.php\/movie-reviews\/joker-2019-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Joker (2019) Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Click here<\/a> to visit our movie review section for more!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joker (2019)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~Review by Grawlix (October 2019)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joker<\/em> is unlike any other movie featuring a major comic book property. There are no wild, highly choreographed action scenes, no CGI fireworks (I could honestly detect little to no CGI enhancement of any kind, though I\u2019m sure there was some in there somewhere. There always is.), and, ironically, very little humor. The story it tells is very close and personal, often uncomfortably so, with the spotlight rarely taken off a protagonist who is simultaneously sympathetic but also often not particularly likeable. It doesn\u2019t play like a modern comic book movie at all, certainly not one that purports to tell the origin story of one of the most infamous archvillains of the medium, but this is to its credit. In an oddly appropriate way, Joker<\/em> is resolute about doing things its own way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Joker we\u2019re introduced to Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). Fleck works as a clown-for-hire but dreams of making it big as a comedian. These aspirations are hampered somewhat by a litany of mental issues, including the unfortunate tendency to laugh uncontrollably (and usually inappropriately) seemingly in substitute for other stressful emotions. In his free time, Arthur takes care of his mother, Penny (Frances Conroy, who\u2019s extended stint on American Horror Story<\/em> likely colored her performance), an invalid with her own set of neuroses, not all of which are immediately apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re also introduced to late-70\u2019s Gotham City, a filthy, crime-ridden concrete jungle, not unlike 1970\u2019s New York, particularly as depicted in films like Death Wish<\/em>, Dog Day Afternoon<\/em>, or Taxi Driver<\/em>. It\u2019s not an environment much inclined to laughter, and after Fleck is beaten by a gang of youths, seemingly for no reason, a co-worker offers him a gun for protection in the future. Unfortunately, the volatile combination of firearms and mental illness mix about as well as might be expected, leading to Fleck losing his job and having one hell of a bad day. He makes an attempt at standup comedy during an open mic night, but his act bombs so badly that a recording of it ends up the target of ridicule of Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro), a late-night talk show host previously enjoyed by both Arthur and his mother. The clip is so popular, in fact, that Arthur is invited onto Franklin\u2019s show as a guest. In other circumstances this would be a dream come true and possibly the big break he\u2019s always dreamed of, but by this point Fleck\u2019s life has run so far off the rails that he has a totally different plan in mind for how to use his fifteen minutes of fame.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll state this right up front; Joaquin Phoenix absolutely crushes it as Arthur Fleck. One can only imagine there was a certain degree of trepidation, after Heath Ledger\u2019s death and Jared Leto\u2019s much publicized erratic behavior, in casting one of the most committed method actors this side of Daniel Day Lewis as the man who would become the Joker, but Phoenix\u2019s mastery of the character is absolute and his fully committed performance will make you believe. This is good, because the focus is on him for nearly the entire two-hour running time and it is not a two hours that passes easily. True to form, it\u2019s one really bad day that starts Fleck down the path of becoming something that\u2019s simultaneously far greater and far less that what he starts as, but once the blows start coming, they don\u2019t stop and seeing him menaced by the twin demons of the unfairness of his life and the chaos of his mind is wearying and exhausting right up to the point he finally gives in and allows The Abyss to swallow him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t help that there isn\u2019t much in the way of normality for Phoenix\u2019s Fleck to play off of. He has a social worker (Sharon Washington) who offers advice and supplies his medication until the funding gets cut. And later on, Murray Franklin seems reasonably well adjusted though it\u2019s clear that his celebrity still sets him apart from the average person. But his mother is clearly not well, his early co-workers are literally clowns, a would-be love interest (Zazie Beetz) ends up harboring her own share of secrets, and of course there\u2019s the backdrop of a simmering class war that ensures the outside world itself always holds a certain degree of tension and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s this class war subplot that adds Thomas Wayne to the story, played by Brett Cullen (who\u2019s mostly known for recurring TV roles but has appeared in both Ghost Rider<\/em> and The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>, so he has some genre cred). Wayne (father to Bruce, if you didn\u2019t know) is an ultra-rich businessman who believes that Gotham\u2019s unrest is the result of the undisciplined poor failing to bootstrap themselves into prosperity and is considering a mayoral run to give the city the leadership he believes it\u2019s lacking. It\u2019s a considerably more unsympathetic portrayal of the character than the Batman franchise usually offers, particularly since Wayne seems completely ignorant of the role the rich are playing in the criminal degradation of Gotham. It\u2019s also the weakest element in the movie generally.  While it\u2019s clear that director Todd Phillips wanted to make sure he worked some degree of the traditional Batman mythos into the film, a subplot that purports to maybe, but maybe not, link the origins of the two characters felt forced and superfluous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparisons to movies like Taxi Driver<\/em> are unavoidable but also apt and not unfounded. From the casting of De Niro, whose Murray Franklin expertly toes the line between affable professional and sleazy dirtbag, not unlike his Travis Bickle from forty years prior, to a scene where Arthur postures and practices delivering lines with his gun. There is also clear inspiration drawn from the real-life Bernie Goetz incident from 1984, and all of the violence in the movie is gritty, chaotic, and brief, as opposed to the polished and stylized stunt crew dances of most other superhero films. I don\u2019t fault Phillips for any of this. Being that up until Joker<\/em> his entire oeuvre consisted of zany comedies (the best known of which were probably the three Hangover<\/em> movies) it\u2019s only natural he\u2019d look to the best inspiration he could find. What\u2019s more impressive is how well he manages to duplicate the feel and tone of the earlier classics. Joker<\/em> is a movie that never allows its audience to fully relax. Between Fleck\u2019s unpredictable outbursts, and a Gotham City in possession of a bottomless font of misery and indignity ready to unleash at a moment\u2019s notice, even the quieter moments carry an undeniable foreboding of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joker<\/em>\u2019s greatest triumph, the thing allows me to forgive virtually all of its (admittedly minor) issues, is that it finally breaks free of the mold of the \u201ccomic book movie\u201d. Even other R-rated comic book films like the Punisher<\/em>, Deadpool<\/em>, and Logan<\/em> made sure to tick the standard boxes of comic action and storytelling, they just did it with harsher language and more graphic violence. Joker <\/em>is generally not preoccupied with ticking boxes that aren\u2019t in direct service to the story. The closest major comic book adaptations that might compare to Joker<\/em> are Watchmen<\/em> and maybe some of the Netflix Marvel series (like their Punisher<\/em>) but even then, the former played more to comic tropes than not (inverted though they often were) and the latter seemed hamstrung by limitations on its content while Joker<\/em> enthusiastically embraces its R-rating. It\u2019s finally living proof of something that comic book fans have known for a while: that even well-known franchises and characters are about more than musclebound dudes in spandex punching each other across a city. That sometimes there is a level of mature, adult, nuanced storytelling that is more than capable of supporting a movie without all the usual comic book bells and whistles. I kind of hope that they don\u2019t try to expand Joker<\/em> into its own franchise, trying to work Batman\u2019s cowl and utility belt into the world that Joker<\/em> has created probably wouldn\u2019t work without some severe compromise. But presently, and on its own, Joker<\/em> stands tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Final Grade: A<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger Ebert once said that the difference between 1970\u2019s Hollywood and today was that in the 70\u2019s studios would try to make the best movie they could and hoped it was profitable whereas today studios try to make the most profitable movie they can and hope that it\u2019s good. Joker<\/em> was clearly made with quality in mind over profitability. And, what do you know, it\u2019s now the highest grossing R-Rated film of all time. One can only hope this is the start of a trend. Joker<\/em> may not be the most fun time you spend at the cinema, but its willingness to cast genre conventions by the wayside make it essential viewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trailer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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