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| Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. Image courtesy Warner Bros. |
Little about Joker is truly
remarkable besides Joaquin Phoenix's grueling performance in the
eponymous role. Otherwise, the film is too wrapped up in social
commentary to understand the topic of conversation. This film is lost
in itself, selling itself to a disaffected group with a message as
clear as mud. Joker is a mess, a tone-deaf, piece of work from
a filmmaker trying to punch far above his weight class.
Joker stars Phoenix as Arthur
Fleck, a lonely clown who lives with his delusional mother (Frances
Conroy) and dreams of standing onstage with talk show host Murray
Franklin (Robert De Niro). Stuck in a rut, Arthur is given a new look
at life following an incident on a train, leading him down a path of
self-discovery and into the atmosphere of single mother Sophie (Zazie
Beetz) and wealthy Gotham magnate Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen). As
Arthur spirals into insanity and into his role as the Batman's
greatest foe, he becomes an accidental symbol for a movement that
will have immeasurable consequences on Gotham's future.
And it's all kind of dull. Phoenix is
great in his role, but the character is not designed to be
particularly engaging or interesting. Joker needs its star to
be charismatic, to provide a reason why so many people devote their
lives and livelihoods to a maniac. How the film explains it is a
little too easy and a little too convenient, dashing the mystery from
the character and scrubbing Joker's intelligence and dangerous
spontaneity. Joker is a monster, yet the film's attempt to humanize
him makes him predictable and simple, with nary a surprise to be
seen. Instead, Arthur Fleck is a victim of an uncaring system, the
kind of person who falls through every imaginable loophole until he
finally snaps. Despite acts of cruelty and several moments of
self-inflicted stupidity, Fleck is among the forgotten, a man
abandoned by a system quickly tearing itself asunder. Even his first
murder begins as an act of self defense that includes haphazard
symbolic lighting effects because it seemed like something Scorsese
would do. The sympathy belongs to a white man burdened by loneliness
and the absence of a strong father figure. He is a victim because
director Todd Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver view such a person
deserving of sympathy while denying similar views for the women and
people of color who populate this film. The biggest tragedy Joker
depicts is society failing the poor white men, and the film never
bothers to wonder why that is a problem.
Joker
really wants to be one of those movies that has something important
to say, but it's terrible at conveying anything with a modicum of
clarity. This stems from Phillips and Silver lacking a clear
perspective of what they want to convey with their film. This film
wants to be taken so, so, so, seriously, screaming for somebody to
hear the big important thing it has to say about how bad society is.
Many movies like Falling Down,
Taxi Driver, Fight
Club, and a whole slew of others
have done such messages before. Yet those films had clarity in their
points and an understanding their protagonists are not decent human
beings pushed too far, but delusional beings whose violent tendencies
and bad choices make them more relatable than likable. Joker
focuses so much on the societal
failures it never engages with the faults of Arthur Fleck, painting
his violent streaks with a sense of unearned catharsis.
The
overarching issue is how far Phillips wanders out of his comfort
area. He's a competent director within a certain genre, but is
otherwise incapable of putting together a piece as complicated as
Joker should be. It's
clear he's seen the movies he's copying – tossing De Niro in as a
talk show host is a clear nod to The King of Comedy
– without understanding the message or the themes, let alone how to
adequately light someone to reflect a destructive mental state. The
films he wants to copy are subtle and pointed, never blaring out the
message louder than it needs to be. Phillips doesn't do subtle, which
infects the film score to a rather nasty degree. Joker
is all over the place because its director cannot settle on what he
wants his film to be. A good Joker film could happen, but it requires
someone with greater talent than Phillips to do it.
Review:
One and a half out of Five Stars
Click
here
to see the trailer.
Rating:
R
Run
time: 121 minutes
Genre:
Drama
tl;dr
What
Worked: Joaquin
Phoenix
What
Fell Short: Writing,
directing, soundtrack, tone
What
To Watch As Well:
Taxi
Driver,
Fight Club
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