“Joker”– Movie Review

This week at the 57th New York Film Festival, I attended the New York Premiere of “Joker”, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Synopsis

When an unbalanced man faces multiple misfortunes over a short period of time, what impact will he have on society when his violent impulses emerge?

 

Story

In the 1980’s, Gotham City is a wreck:  the streets reek because they’re filled with garbage, the economy is bad, people are having trouble either finding work or keeping the job they do have and crime is increasingly rampant.  For these reasons and more, it seems the perfect place for someone like Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) to make his home. Arthur, who lives with his mother, is an aspiring stand-up comedian; while he pursues his dream in comedy clubs at night, his subsistence job is to work as a party clown for different events:  birthday parties, children’s wards at hospitals, etc. 

But that’s only what Arthur deals with on the surface.  Below that is a deeply troubled man with a tendency toward violence; a brain injury causes him to burst into laughter at inappropriate moments.  When Arthur is given a handgun after he’s mugged, he takes out his frustration on some bullies on the subway, killing them. Arthur winds up suffering one challenge after another:  first, he loses his job. Then, when budget cuts in Gotham City cause him to lose his social programs like therapy and access to psychotropic and neuropsychiatric medication, his mental and emotional problems worsen.  Finally, his mother is hospitalized with a stroke.

Perhaps the only respite Arthur has at this point is watching television; he’s particularly fond of a late night talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro).  When Franklin is sent a video of Arthur bombing during his stand-up routine at a comedy club, he plays it on his show in order to ridicule Arthur. Since his audience’s reaction to it is favorable, Franklin books Arthur on the show to do his material.  But by now, Arthur is in such a serious state of mental decline that he has become very dark and violent. He insists on making his appearance on the show with bizarre clown make-up on his face and wearing an odd getup. Although Franklin’s staff has reservations about letting Arthur on the air, Franklin advocates for him – but exactly what will be the upshot of this dangerous decision?           

 

Review

“Joker” is definitely not for the faint of heart – nor is it for the kids.  This is strictly for adult fans of the Batman comic books and/or movies. If you have children (or know someone who does), seeing this film will likely just serve to confuse them or give them nightmares.  Even at that, some adults might find it rather disturbing as well. That being said, “Joker” did win The Golden Lion Award for Best Film at this year’s Venice Film festival. Its star, Joaquin Phoenix, was nominated for Best Actor at that festival but did not win.  His performance in this motion picture is extraordinary – and equally as disturbing as the picture itself.

Taking a bigger picture view of “Joker”, it really seems to be about the dissolution of normal society when all normal safeguards fall by the wayside.  This is particularly seen when Gotham has budget cuts and Arthur’s therapist and medicine are denied him for an extended period of time. His mental health further degrades when major setbacks in his life occur and he becomes ill-equipped to handle them.  Ultimately, it is an indictment of society as a whole when its most vulnerable members are allowed to slip through the cracks. The people are not at fault, the causes are what are to blame instead. 

Following the screening, there was an interview with director Todd Phillips, star Joaquin Phoenix, Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Production Designer Mark Friedberg and Cinematographer Lawrence Sher.  Phillips acknowledges that this is a complicated movie, but he didn’t expect the level of discourse “Joker” has received even before its official release. He found that people are commenting on it without ever having seen the film (or in some cases, committing to not even see it at all when released).  The director considers the story a character study of a villain with whom we are all familiar and is associated with mayhem and chaos. What we know about The Joker is that in the original story, he got his white face by being dunked in acid; Phillips decided that this approach would not work for his motion picture because it wasn’t terribly realistic – as a result, he decided to make The Joker a clown instead.