Review of Joker (2019) by Thouze — 25 Oct 2019

Outrage has really ruined the conversation about movies. Not that it’s a bad thing, but outrage tends to overshadow movie's overall intentions. It’s no surprise that Joker ends up getting a nice share of the outrage, but it often leads the question: Is the film worth all the controversy or is it a small issue blown up into a big one?

The film follows Arthur (Joaquin Phoenix) is older down on his luck man suffering through various mental illnesses, particularly his uncontrollable laughter in various scenarios. As his world crumbles around him, he finds himself teetering on reality and fantasy as he seeks to find some form of acceptance as he becomes the legend known as the Joker.

This is no surprise when I say that Joaquin Phoenix pulls out an amazing performance as the Joker. He finds a perfect line trying to humanize his character's disability and bringing the viewer into his mind and often sweeping the rug under our feet with an “unreliable narrator” presentation where it makes you wonder what really happens and what doesn’t. The film gorgeously re-creates an early 1980’s New York aesthetic with the grime, trash and somehow frames it in a pretty well-shot way.

The biggest problem is when portraying a character with disabilities, Director Todd Phillips shoots the film in the foot with often falling back on cliche old demeaning natures. Particularly one character who’s only character trait is his dwarfism and is often made fun of his height, that even involves a pretty dark scene later on which is hard to tell if it’s a payoff for a joke or not. Also, the film borrows a couple too many pages from Taxi Driver, which ironically stars Robert De Nero who’s in this film as well and is pretty great as a talk show host.

Joker will divide many people and I think that’s the goal of the film. Many will like the portrayal of the villain, and many will dislike the violence and how certain things are represented. But I feel what many will agree on is how Joaquin Phoenix knocks it out of the park.