Joker

I don't remember the last time a thriller had the effect on me while I was watching it to the extent that I felt like a tightly wound coiled spring ready to snap.  Joker is not a movie that you enjoy, but it is a movie that pulls you into its world and its lead character.  You feel things you probably don't want to feel, but the fact that the movie is doing such a wonderful job of drawing you in is reason enough to recommend.  Nobody will have fun watching this, but they will still have an unforgettable movie experience.

I feel it's appropriate to say this, because Joker is an unpleasant film to watch, but it is also completely absorbing.  It feels lived in.  For the two hours or so that it runs, I was mesmerized.  I go to the movies for a lot of reasons, and I enjoy them for a lot of reasons.  Sometimes I go to escape, and sometimes I just want to see the world in a different way.  What director and co-writer Todd Phillips has done is create a film that pulls you into very dark corners of the mind that you probably don't want to go.  You almost want to resist.  There are moments where I knew where the film was going, and I wanted to stop it.  This is a relentlessly cruel and sad movie.  But, it is not a sad sack, nor is it whiny.  It's alive, it has a kind of energy to it.  That's what sets it apart, and that's what makes it one of the more challenging films I have seen in a while.

You may recall that just a couple weeks ago, I reviewed Rambo: Last Blood, and criticized it harshly for "wallowing in human pain and misery", and splashing it up on the screen.  So does this movie in a way.  So, why am I calling this film great, while I lambasted Stallone's effort?  It's quite simple - Rambo is artless junk.  It doesn't have anything to say.  It just wants to spread depression, anger and violence onto its audience without leaving any impression whatsoever.  It wants to be exploitative.  This movie made me feel things almost from the first frame.  They are not good feelings for the most part, but the movie takes us there and fully explores them.  It is a satisfying drama about a tortured man, and not just a "Geek Show" that forces us to watch horrible things.  It is expertly paced, and draws us slowly into its most severe and darkest aspects.

When we first see the main character, Arthur Fleck, he is applying clown made up on his face as he looks in the mirror.  He then stops, and begins to stretch the corners of his lips, forcing an enormous grin that does not look happy in the slightest.  It looks painful.  Arthur is the man who will eventually become the Joker of the title, and yes, that refers to the villain from the Batman comic books.  But this is not a superhero movie, or even a supervillain film.  At no point does Arthur hatch any schemes against the people of Gotham City, which in this movie resembles New York City in the late 70s and early 80s.  There are porno theaters everywhere, and garbage lines the streets due to a sanitation strike that is going on.  It's gotten so bad that even the rats seem to be evolving into some kind of "super rat" according to news reports.  Everyone complains about the state of the city, but nobody really wants to do anything.  They've resigned themselves that crime, filth and violence are just a way of life.

Arthur is a meek man, but not a mild one.  Even in his early scenes where he is performing as a clown to entertain children at a hospital, there is a sense of anger within him.  As played by Joaquin Phoenix, he is a man of intense rage and hatred.  He looks like he is wired and energized by what he feels for the people who constantly look down on him, which include many of the people in his life.  He spends his days being disrespected by co-workers and random people on the streets, and his nights in a dingy apartment where he looks after his ailing mother who has been mentally unstable most of her life (Frances Conroy).  He has his fantasies.  His childhood dream has been to be a stand up comic, and he is making some effort to make it a reality.  But, we get the sense that even he knows he is fooling himself.  When he dreams of meeting one of his idols, a talk show host named Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), we witness that fantasy and in it, Murray doesn't take a liking toward Arthur because he is funny, but because of the person he is.

Maybe this means Arthur knows he's not that funny.  Maybe he just wants someone to actually respect him.  The thing is, and one of the details this movie gets right is, there's not a lot to respect about Arthur.  He is not a good man who has been dealt a bad hand most of his life.  He is not someone who would blossom if someone just gave him a chance.  He is self-obsessed.  He almost seems to think people should like him because so few do.  He doesn't do a lot to get people to notice him.  What most people do notice is the fact that he has a condition where he starts laughing uncontrollably when he is uncomfortable.  This obviously gives others a bad impression of him.  They see a nervous man seemingly laughing at nothing, and they hate or fear him.  This particular condition leads to an incident on a subway that serves as the tipping point for Arthur to go from buried rage, to having that rage begin to show on the surface.  It's not even subtle, and is almost unmissable.

Joker forces us to watch Arthur fall apart mentally and emotionally.  And when his mother tells him a family secret, his quest for answers only forces him to spiral even further.  We know no good can come from anything.  The more pain and sorrow that is inflicted upon him, the more Arthur becomes obsessed with fighting back the only way he thinks he knows how.  It is a credit to Phoenix's performance that we fully believe in Arthur.  It doesn't seem like an actor who is pretending to be losing his grip.  He looks like he's been fighting a losing battle all his life, even physically.  The first time he takes off his shirt, and we see his gaunt body where it seems as if every bone within him is sticking through his skin, it is an amazing sight.  He encompasses every fiber of this character, and it's kind of startling.  He brings this life to the performance that feels like maybe Arthur has been a part of him his whole life, waiting to come out in this performance.  He reaches some incredible depths here, and it is electrifying to watch every second he's on screen.

The movie has the same effect.  This is a period film set in a specific time and place, and it feels that way in every scene.  Not one aspect has been overlooked here.  The settings look real and lived in.  The theater marquees and advertisements that we see on the street are appropriate to the early 80s urban vibe.  The song choices on the soundtrack also seem perfectly planned and placed.  Speaking of the music, the score by Hildur Guonadottir also stands out.  Using mostly violins, it creates an atmosphere that can be subtle yet imposing.  It matches the rage that is constantly just under the surface of Arthur.  The music matches the tightly wound intensity of the film itself.  It's probably not the kind of stuff you would want to listen to at home at the end of a stressful day, but as accompaniment to this film, it matches flawlessly.

So, yes, I think Joker is a great movie, but it is not an enjoyable one.  In fact, I don't know if I could sit through it again in a theater setting.  Perhaps at home, when I would have the ability to pause and pick it up again at my choosing.  That being said, the fact that the film had such a hold over me is really saying something.  This movie has so much intensity and power that I was kind of unprepared for it.  And yet, I loved how the movie was working as it was playing out.  It had me completely enraptured the way that few films can.  This is not a movie that wallows in bad feelings.  It is alive, and in its own dark way, it is vibrant.  It is also not a movie that celebrates hatred and violence, like some people have suggested in the weeks leading up to the film's release.  Movies can offer us a glimpse into all corners of life, and this movie forces us to watch aspects we probably rather would not.  It is not playing up the tragedy, nor is it throwing its support behind people like Arthur.  It is simply throwing us head-first into his world and his mind.

And that's why I think this is a film worth celebrating.  It is bold, kind of daring, and truly energetic.  So what if I can't recommend it for everyone?  A lot of movies are not for everyone, and this is a movie that certainly will not appeal to the wide masses.  But, I loved what it set out to do, and ultimately achieved.  You may see it differently.  Debate is another wonderful thing that movies can create.  I have a feeling this one will create a lot.

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