Film Review: Joker

Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Mature 
Vulgarity Mature
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

"I don't believe in anything."

This simply delivered line towards the end of Joker is actually the black heart at the center of this look into the moral void.

Joker is an original take on the famous Batman villain that is completely divorced from any origin story to have come before.  Writer/director Todd Philips, best known for comedies like The Hangover, has produced what many are calling a dark masterpiece.  I will say that at the very least, this is one of the most disturbing films I have seen in years.

The story follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a mentally ill, poverty-stricken man who lives in the slums of Gotham City with his ailing mother Penny (Frances Conroy).  By day, Arthur tries to make a living as a street clown, hired out by a run-down agency.  The city is infested with piles of garbage and the streets are filled with hopeless and violent people.  Arthur dreams of one day becoming a stand up comedian, even though his desires clearly overshoot his talent and skill.  He  even fantasizes about being embraced by a Johnny Carson-like late night host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro).  To matters worse, Arthur is plagued by a brain-damage-induced tick that causes him to laugh uncontrollably when he gets tense.  This often leads to even more awkward confrontations.  The only one who seems to show him any real warmth and compassion is his neighbor Sophie (Zazie Beetz), but life keeps tearing him down.  But then an act of violence sends him on a collision course to utter chaos in Gotham.

Much has been written about Phoenix's performance and it is not hyperbole.  It is the best acting I have seen all year and as of now I cannot imagine anyone more deserving of an Oscar.  A lot of people have focused on Phoenix's facial expressions and laughs.  And to be sure, he has masterful technique on display in these areas.  His expression can go from helplessness to demonic with subtle speed.  And his voice carries with it both pain and menace.  But what kept captivating me was his body language.  Watching him slowly awaken the monster within was captivating.  Phoenix played it out methodically and horribly with the way he carried himself.  Arthur's evil and violence became his armor against the cruel world that hurt him.  Phoenix makes every move, every gesture, every word count.  I would often use the word "mesmerizing" regarding Heath Ledger's take on the Joker in The Dark Knight.  I would use the same language to describe Phoenix.  But whereas Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime was a supremely confident mastermind, Phoenix's Joker is a man who is nothing but a ball of rage at the powerlessness he feels in life and acts out like short-fused monster.  The rest of the supporting cast does a fine job, but there is no mistake that this is Phoenix's movie.  He is in every single scene and everyone else is scene the lens of his experience.

Philips, along with cinematographer Lawrence Sher and Production Designer Mark Friedberg,  deserve a great deal of credit for creating such an amazing atmosphere film.  Gotham is an oppressive 1970's hell hole from which there appears to be no escape.  All beauty and safety are removed from the film and it forces you into the claustrophobic landscape that slowly turns you a little mad too.  Philips makes the movie intentionally ugly, but endlessly fascinating.  If there is a complaint I have about the film is that the script by Philips and Scott Silver lacks focus in the first two acts.  The story meanders from scene to scene.  I suppose that Philips would argue that his point was not to make a plot-centric film.  Instead, he was letting the audience experience the emotional conditions that created the Joker.

The score by Hildur Guðnadóttir is haunting and tense.  It was reminiscent of the score from the British show Broadchurch that filled you with a sense of sadness and dread.

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is often cited as being an incredibly dark (no pun intended) film especially with the presence of the Joker.  That is not an accurate analysis, as the movie ultimately says that normal people are decent and good.  Joker has the opposite message about the human condition.  It says that people are not only capable of great evil, but the little human compassion that seems to be the antidote to this darkness is sorely lacking in the world.  Arthur is constantly turned away from the compassion and understanding he so desperately needs.  He has no friends.  He is alone.

However, Philips is clearly not laying the blame for Arthur's evil at the feet of society.  Arthur himself blames the heartlessness of the world for his own acts of violence.  But Philips never makes it that easy.  Arthur is too self-centered to see that he lacks the compassion that he yearns for.  Being a victim of ridicule does not mean that you are a virtuous hero.

I usually try to avoid any reviews for a movie before I write my own, but I came across one that had such an amazing insight into how this movie works.  The reviewer said that human beings are naturally empathetic.  So at the beginning of the movie, our hearts go out to Arthur and we yearn for him to overcome his odds and be treated with dignity.  But the reviewer pointed out that Arthur doesn't become a monster.  He always is a monster who only slowly lets go of his inhibitions.  As this happens, we also slowly lose our empathy with him.  Arthur revels in his violence.  After his first murder, he takes a moment in a public bathroom to do a slow dance of triumph and ecstasy.  It is as lyrical as it is disturbing and ugly.  He is finding glory in literal and moral filth. While Philips brings into Joker's messed-up world, he is clearly not advocating for his deranged world-view.

There has been a lot of talk about whether the movie is political.  It is, but it is not partisan.  It points out that when elites do not take care of basic services and those at the bottom are overly burdened, social unrest follows.  The wealthy leaders are viewed with the same level of ugliness as the violent rioters.  Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) calls the protestors "clowns."  The protestors embrace that image and escalate their actions.  There really are no good sides in this fight, but it points out that creating a deeper divide will eventually reach a tipping point.  The movie reminded me that Church's emphasis on taking care of the poor is not just a spiritual necessity but also a pragmatic one too.  If their needs and their dignity are not addressed, then society collapses.  If there is a political message, it is that mob mentality will lead to chaos.

This brings us back to the quote at the beginning.  Arthur is asked towards the end of the film if he is political.  He responds that he doesn't believe in anything.  More-so than his mental illness, this is the root cause of the moral void inside of him.  He believes in nothing bigger than himself.  He says at another point, "I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I now it's a comedy."  That is actually a horrifying shift.  Life is tragic if the pain we experience is not the way it's suppose to be.  All suffering in this world is the tragic effect of Original Sin.  But there is hope because we know that there is a higher ideal, even if it is not something we are currently experiencing.  But Arthur's view that his life is comedy means that life is a joke: an empty meaningless practical joke that is playing out to his expense.  His only response to to return the pain of this practical joke in kind to those who dish it out to him.  This is what I see more and more in the world with those who act out in large-scale violence.  Life, to them, is a horrible joke.  And in their minds, the only way we will get the joke is when they lash out at us.  As good as this movie was, I cannot say it was enjoyable and I'm not sure I would want to sit through the whole thing again.

I left the theater much more uneasy than when I walked in.  My eyes looked with more suspicion at the people that surrounded me.  I am not saying the movie is at fault for my heightened paranoia.  All it did was make me realize even more horrible insight:

If the Joker's nihilism takes a deeper hold onto our world today, then the last laugh will be on all of us.