“Joker”| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R
By Kyle Osborne
I trashed my original review-I did the present day version of ripping the paper from the typewriter, noisily wadding the paper into a ball and chucking it in the trash can.
Why? Because I had fallen into the same trap that so many critics have when writing about “Joker.” I started writing about “society” and about how the film may or may not be the source of violence–about whether it might “trigger” some crazy bastard out in the world into being a copycat.
And then I realized what utter horseshit that whole line of opining is. If you, like me, believe that movies and video games and TV shows don’t directly cause violence (since they don’t in virtually every other country on the planet-particularly countries where guns aren’t fetishized and easily available to people who shouldn’t have them) then you probably understand that movies are pretend. Nobody actually gets hurt in them, whether by a Texas chainsaw or a guy in a hockey mask. And the most violent films in American history are among the most revered: The Wild Bunch, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver…it’s an endless list.
And with all that unnecessary baggage thrown aside- a review of director Todd Phillips’s “Joker” becomes quite simple: It’s a good movie. It’s good storytelling with a hypnotic performance by Joaquin Phoenix at its center. It’s a comic book film for people (me!!) who are fatigued by Marvel movies and wondered what it would be like to have an origin story of a villain-a stand-alone flick- that just focuses on the genesis of one of the enduring baddies in the DC Comics canon.
Set in a late 70s, bleak and perpetually gray Gotham, and much has been made about Phillips appropriating the Scorsese New York of “Taxi Driver”, Joker tells of the sad existence of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) a mentally ill man whose bleak days are spent as a clown for hire, and his nights are spent watching late night TV with his unwell mother, while he dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian who will get a coveted spot on the Murray Franklin Show, a “Tonight Show”-type show with Robert De Niro in the role of the host.
Fleck is a victim of bullies in virtually every corner of his life, from exploitative bosses, to violent Wall Street guys on the graffiti-ridden subway, to a group of kids who kick the crap out of him before the opening credits even make their appearance.
It doesn’t help that Fleck is afflicted with a neurological condition that causes involuntary laughter at the most inappropriate times-a guttural wailing that looks and sounds like someone has cried so hard until they’ve begun choking.
Like “Taxi Driver”, the movie spends most of its time pulling back the springs–stretching them until, finally, they can’t take any more tension and must be released. When that spasm of violence occurs, it seems as inevitable as the horrific cases that do happen in real life. Where everyone stands around being interviewed by the news, saying that they could see it coming from miles away, but didn’t know what to do to stop things happening.
As far as the comic book connections are concerned-they will fall under the categories of interesting things that one shouldn’t spoil. We are watching a sick man become the earliest version of a super villain, and the film skillfully alludes to Batman (more specifically, the Wayne family) and how the pieces all fit together. But, again, we won’t spoil those surprises here.
Joaquin Phoenix is a world class actor. If he is guilty of a little scenery-chewing in this role, he’s certainly not going any further over the top than Jack Nicholson or Caesar Romero or, yes, even Heath Ledger did. If ever a character called for “go big or go home,” it is surely this one. His elegant, creepy dance moves are a nice touch. The laugh is unique to him.
Imagine an art house film. A character study. Something that moves at a deliberate pace with a limited palette of colors. That’s “Joker.”
Kyle Osborne