Rating: 4.5 stars
Following the controversial film of Suicide Squad in 2016, Todd Phillips’ Joker focuses in on DC’s most well-known villain and the story of how he came to be the coveted Clown Prince of Crime. From the first shot to the very end, audiences are treated to a gritty, fine-tuned, sophisticated woven tale of Arthur Fleck, a failed comedian seeking connection in the streets of Gotham City. Much like his comic counterpart, he wears two masks – one where he puts on a show and paints his face as a clown-for-hire at his day job, and the other projecting his attempts to fit in with society despite being bullied, isolated and disregarded. As society’s views on him become more and more obvious, Arthur slowly begins his descent into a dark world of madness, vengeance, and betrayal, ultimately transforming him into the criminally insane mastermind known as the Joker.
Joaquin Phoenix delivers a phenomenally, gut-wrenching and thought-provoking performance as the titular character, from the way Arthur interacts with society to the inner thoughts shared in both his journal and with his social worker. He never misses a beat.
Joker presents a whole new controversial origin story for the iconic DC villain, one where Todd Phillips’ loosely makes use of a real-life medical condition to explain the criminal’s infamous laugh. The Pseudobulbar Affect or PBA, is an emotional disorder where the person’s outward emotions are completely disconnected to that of their inner emotions, manifesting in uncontrollable fits of laughter or weeping in situations deemed inappropriate.
Now, I personally am on the fence about using real-world mental conditions in films to portray the struggle of characters – particularly those considered villainous – and their isolated connection to society. But I will say, Joker plays this out really well by using Arthur’s “condition” as a way of enhancing the character’s disconnect with the real world around him, people seeing him as ill and essentially giving more reason for his journey down the dark path and why he would later end up in Arkham Asylum.
Given the story follows a lonely, disturbed man in a dark, chaotic and unconventional city such as Gotham in the early 1980s, it’s important to be able to capture both the darkness and sensitivity of the city and its titular character.
Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir creates an eerily beautiful soundtrack for the character, full of melancholy to reflect the inner torment that Arthur experiences throughout the film. ‘Call Me Joker’ is a theme often played throughout the film when he starts what could be this enchanting almost metamorphosis of a dance. Phoenix himself even credits Broadway performer, Ray Bolger – most well-known for his role as Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz – where Joaquin takes inspiration from Bolger’s The Old Soft Shoe.
“There’s this odd arrogance almost to his movements” and this is something that Arthur portrays in his movements when dancing up and down the steps or in the grimy bathroom.
Joker is truly a fantastic piece of cinema – depending on where you stand. It plays around with the idea of the iconic DC villain, taking a more twisted turn in way of his origin story and how he became to be the leader of Gotham’s underbelly. In some strange way, it’s bleak and gritty but at the same time is able to bring those uplifting undertones of finding his freedom amongst Gotham City and its chaos.
