THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Joker follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix); a man who has just the worst life. He works as a clown, constantly gets beat up, lives in an absolute slum of a city, and is stuck taking care of his mother. Oh, and he is very mentally damaged. This film documents one man's descent into madness, as he develops a lust for theatrics, comedy, and blood.
Joker was one of my most anticipated films of the year. I was so excited to see this classic villain be put in the spotlight. As much as I love Joker's origins being a mystery, I was interested in seeing what could be done with an origin like this. And I realize this movie has been getting a lot of controversy. Some people think this film celebrates violence and cruelty, as well as being a movie for "incels." I am not going to talk about the controversies. The controversies have nothing to do with the quality of the film, nor do they have anything to do with my thoughts on the film. As for what I think, I think this film is pretty great... despite a few things.
I'm going to talk about the best part of the film first, and that's Joaquin Phoenix. This guy is incredible. He is a phenomenal actor, and his performance in this film is absolutely amazing. Every single scene he's in makes me feel so uncomfortable. He perfectly tows the line between someone you hate and someone you genuinely feel sorry for. And the way he uses the classic Joker laugh is genius. A lot of that definitely comes down to the writers for working the laugh in such a smart way for Arthur's character, but the way Phoenix perfected it is truly unlike anything I've ever heard.
The second best aspect of this movie is the musical score. The music is somber, dark, emotional, and compliments each scene very well. I love how the score gets more frenetic and twisted as the movie goes along. It perfectly matches Arthur's descent into madness, and each moment of musical score beautifully matches the tone of the scene. There are some moments where the music can get overbearing, especially with some of the more dramatically quieter moments, but when the score sounds this good, I don't mind at all.
This film also looks fantastic. The cinematography is beautiful and conveys a lot of meaning and darkness in eye catching stills, pans, tilts, zooms, and other kinds of shots I can't remember the names of. The lights use these beautiful reds and greens to offset the brown and grey colors of the city. And the city looks hideous in the best way possible. Gotham City looks disgusting. Everything is greasy, slimy, cold, and looks absolutely heinous. It's like Chicago, but with less landmarks. The makeup is great, the costumes are fantastic, and the editing is solid. This is overall a really good looking flick.
My problems with the film start appearing with the storytelling. Don't get me wrong, I think the story itself is pretty good. It's a gripping look at a harshly declining mental health, and it acts as a fascinating character study. The pacing is slow yet it manages to be pretty intriguing throughout, never getting fully boring. The tone is uncomfortably dark and the way that scenes flow into each other feels natural and well planned.
What ends up preventing the story from achieving its full greatness comes down to the writing. The dialogue comes across as corny sometimes. It doesn't happen all the time, but there are multiple instances where the lines sound cheesy. Part of the reason comes down to the performances of the supporting cast. Those performances are fine, but a lot of the acting in these side roles are over the top to the point of becoming cartoony. I know, this is a comic book movie about a maniacal clown, but with the dark, somber, serious tone this movie has been developing, these side characters become out of place. For example, in the subway when Joker gets tormented by the Wall Street guys, one of them starts dancing, perfectly singing "Send In the Clown." I know it's supposed to be menacing, but it looked goofy to me. Moments like that really took me out of the story Joker was developing.
Besides that, there's an entire subplot involving Bruce Wayne and his father that didn't work for me. The inclusion of them, particularly of Bruce, was forced. The whole thing felt like the producers going "Joker is a Batman villain, so we need to include Bruce to remind everyone that this is a Batman film." And the fact that the Joker's actions lead to Bruce's parent's murders just seemed unnecessary. I mean, sure, it's an interesting "what if" scenario, but it didn't add anything interesting. If there was less focus on trying to tie Arthur to the birth of Batman, the story would have been stronger. Also, the first introduction of Arthur and Bruce was stupid. I know, they wanted it to be creepy and ridiculous, but it came across really silly.
As for other story issues, there's an entire relationship between Arthur and Sophie, played by Zazie Beetz, that was wasted potential. I like the idea of Sophie's relationship with Arthur being a part of his imagination. It's a nice way to add some tragic humanity to Arthur, as well as being a good subversion of expectations when the twist happens. However, that whole arc takes up so little of the movie. It leaves absolutely no impact. They could have done so much with it, but it's gone before it has any time to develop. My guess is there were more scenes with Sophie and Arthur building their relationships, but those scenes were cut for time. It's a shame. I would have liked to have seen what they could do with a story like that.
Overall, I think Joker is very good. Even with its issues, this is a strong, dark, and mature comic book film. It looks great, sounds great, and has some fantastic performances. If you haven't seen Joker yet, you absolutely should. I don't think it's quite as good as people say, but I don't think it's as bad as critics say either. This is just really dang good. And that's no joke.
Final Score: 7/10 (Good)
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