Todd Phillips’ reimagining of Batman’s titular arch-nemesis will no doubt become a monumental stepping stone for what comic book adaptations can offer audiences. It’s offering a lot on the table, and yet, not much of it has any value. It’s a movie that sounds, looks, and feels bold and ambitious, and in some ways it is. But if you dig deeper, the movie doesn’t offer anything that’s worth considering.
It’s weird to say it that way given the way people who saw it at various film festivals, such as in Venice and Toronto, were raving about how “unsettling” and “mesmerizing” and “disturbing” the movie made itself out to be. To be fair, the story certainly boasts a number of scenes that support that notion, and Joaquin Phoenix is captivatingly unnerving and relentless in one of the year’s most profound and dedicated performances. But when you get to the bare bones of the structure, you find that Joker is trying to be multiple identities, and thus it never feels like it had one to begin with.
Gotham City native Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) tries to do what he can to live his life. He supports his ailing mother Penny (Francis Conroy), makes a few cents an hour as a clown on the street, and altogether aspires to become a comedian. He finds inspiration wherever he can, whether at comedy clubs or on television. Inevitably, however, Arthur’s life begins to descend further into despair and tragedy to the point where he enacts an act of violence that is heard throughout Gotham, inspiring a series of protests and riots. As his life continues to spiral downward, Arthur’s personal sanity begins to morph into the villainous persona of the Joker.
If you were able to break the movie in half, you can tell pretty much the entire situation of the movie as of right now. It boasts a lot of artistic merit and exceptional aesthetical efforts, but if you were to unwrap it and see what’s inside, you don’t get much. Imagine if this movie is how Todd Phillips is attempting to move to the grown-ups table of “serious, dark, and poignant/challenging” movies. In doing so, he’s practically disguising Joker as a serious, thought-provoking piece of social/political commentary. But really, by trying to be more than the sum of its parts, it loses balance and inevitably its own identity.
It’s this imbalance that has a profound effect on the character of Arthur Fleck. Putting aside Joaquin Phoenix’s performance for just a second, the actual characterization of Arthur goes back and forth from pity and care to practically nothing. Whenever Arthur attempts to do standup comedy in front of a crowd, there’s nothing but pain and anguish as you see him uncontrollably laughing on stage. There are many effective moments like this where you do somewhat feel for the guy. But for the most part, whatever terrible thing that happens to him isn’t a gut-punch to the audience.
You can practically ask a number of different people to comb through the entirety of Joker 2-hour runtime and find a whole menagerie of different scenes, pieces of dialogue, shots, etc. that will fit their worldview. That is problematic because as a result, the movie never understands what it’s trying to be. It just like its main character, lost in trying to become what they always tried to be, but ultimately hindered by their own questionable worldview and philosophy. The movie is ultimately all bark and only a little bite. It’s a story that tries to tell you it has a lot to say about a lot of things. But in reality never amounts to anything worth talking about
That’s not to say the movie never boasts anything meaningful. Far from it, there are plenty of noteworthy aspects that are worth positively considering. While the story/script isn’t fully realized, the world in which it’s set in is thanks to Lawrence Sher’s stellar cinematography. He brings a much needed levity and vibrancy to Gotham’s rotten underbelly, exposing its dirty streets, dark alleys, and the chaos that ensues within it. The grim and gritty nature of the story and Arthur’s descent into madness and frenzy is also amplified with great assistance from Hildur Guðnadóttir’s impeccably haunting score.
But the thing that manages to keep the movie and all its loose connections and threads together is Joaquin Phoenix, who manages to give not only one of the most fully realized and mesmerizing performances of the year, but one of the best in his entire career. It’s no question that people are gonna want to compare him to Heath Ledger’s equally brilliant and terrifying performance in The Dark Knight. But those comparisons are irrelevant because Phoenix manages to pull off his own take on the villain and spin him in a new direction away from Ledger’s portrayal. One of the reasons the Joker is such a menacing villain is because of his unpredictable and unhinged nature. In this movie, his mindset on the world around him is disjointed and clouded to the point where he feels everything he does is justifiable, and that makes for some incredibly effective and hauntingly suspenseful moments of violence and danger. Phoenix manages to give it his all in bringing this character to life, and he doesn’t waste an ounce of blood, sweat, or tears in doing so.
Joker attempts to become so much more than it really is. It acts like a deranged teenager who wants to sit at the grown-ups table but hasn’t fully matured into what they can potentially become. At the same time, it’s a risky step away from the traditional superhero landscape and that is something to be commended. Joaquin Phoenix delivers every line and every scene with graphic poetry and chaotic grace. But even so, Joker has the pieces to become a true game-changer for comic book movies, but is instead a thoughtfully-crafted but thematically and narratively hollow experiment that has plenty to say, and yet nothing to say at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY&t=1s&w=585