An awful
lot has been written about Joker and, to my mind, most of it is pointless and largely
irrelevant. Having seen it – which I think gives me an advantage over some
commentators – it is not a training film for incels, nor is it horrendously violent.
There are,
I think, half a dozen killings in the film only one of which would be described
as graphic. Certainly, I am more relaxed about the violence in Joker than I
am in, for example, about the consequence-free carnage of the most recent Rambo films or
Gerard Butler’s Fallen trilogy.
For me, Joker is a flawed,
ambitious but largely successful movie which also happens to highlight all that
is wrong with the current state of the film industry. This film should have
been able to be greenlit on the merits of its own story, but instead the only
way it can get made is by classing it as a ‘standalone non-canon' superhero
movie. What nonsense.
There is
simply no need narratively for the Batman connection. The Wayne family are little more than
marginalia. Gotham City here is plainly 1970s New York, specifically the moral
abyss around Eighth Avenue. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher’s putrid colour
palette gives the film a traditional look with a contemporary feel.
It’s a film
that owes more to Martin Scorsese’s cinematic universe than the DC Universe. It
has its origins in those powerful Seventies stories of urban alienation such as King of Comedy (1981) or Taxi Driver (1976),
also Network (976) to an extent, as well as lesser-known films
like WUSA (1970).
It’s a
powerful narrative. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a deeply troubled man
whose mental health is gradually disintegrating. He works as a clown for hire
for a promotions agency and slowly but surely approaches the brink of collapse.
His only hope is as an aspiring stand-up and being discovered by late night
talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert de Niro). When all of this falls apart
it leads to a killing spree, an orgy of rioting, and Arthur becoming a totemic
leader of the mob.
One of the
problems with Joker, for me, is that director Todd Phillips doesn’t seem to
know what he wants to say. It is not a well organised film though, to be fair,
it does make great use of the unreliable narrator.
The shining
light here is Phoenix who does a tremendous job selling the story. The
performance teeters alarmingly on the edge of hysteria but he is also brave
enough to be quiet. The use of silence and stillness is compelling and makes
Arthur’s emotional disintegration palpable.
It strikes
me that there is a point to be made here about the perils of dismissing the marginalised in our
society. I couldn’t help but recall a recent trip to San Francisco where scores
of homeless and/or mentally ill people have been abandoned to the streets; the
same streets that contain the headquarters of global corporations like Uber.
There must
be a reckoning for that at some stage, you need only look at the schismatic behaviour here and in the US. Although
Phillips touches briefly on this his film lacks the courage to point any
fingers.
Instead of
indicting society Joker is dressed up as a superhero movie and rather than
make a serious point its main concern seems to be setting up a sequel. Given
the potential of much of this film that’s rather a shame.
