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Plot Summary: A gritty character study of Arthur Fleck, a man disregarded by society.

Director: Todd Phillips

Writers: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver

Runtime: 2 hours 1 minute

Main Cast:

• Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck
• Robert de Niro as Murray Franklin
• Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond
• Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck
• Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne

Review by: Mia R

Personally, no matter what genre or medium of entertainment that I dive into, I go in aiming to be hooked by the ability of a story to feel almost as if it builds itself. Show me deep psychological turmoil transforming individuals into driven, traumatized, and broken geniuses so that, even when the storytelling falls short, the world built itself is action within the plot. Villains like Joker make the journeys of heroes layered and persuasive stories. Joker, as one of the most utilized villains, in the DC Universe should be given to an audience in a way that perfects this formula. Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger did it well in The Dark Knight Trilogy by forcing Batman to see his home and the people within suffer in a tug of war orchestrated by Ledger’s Joker. Bruno Heller’s Gotham and Cameron Monaghan’s Jerome do it as well by forcing Young Bruce to see the world he cares about destroyed by his own delusions of being a savior of Gotham. Gotham is actually one of the main reasons that the idea of a Joker Film providing to us the villain we are familiar with in an atypical way made me think of an entire Gotham that reintroduced to favored characters with a freedom that allowed for actors like Monaghan to step up and redefine expectations of the known roles they stepped into. Joker is built to break, shape, and warp every mind in Gotham within his reach, especially Batman. That is the root of his villainy and drive. Not only does he step up against Batman in Gotham, but he eventually becomes a force that breaks Superman. So, when I found out that there would be an attempt at an origin story for Joker that freely stepped away from canon expectations, I was more intrigued than outraged. The best part of comic heroes and villains is always the potential to retell their stories and their growth in an entirely new way. I hoped that this film would accomplish that in a way that upheld the impact of Joker as a villain. I avoided most trailers after the first, cringed each time I saw opinions of the movie online, and actually walked into the theater dreading the film, worried it would be another case of try-hard from a respected artist. Instead, Joaquin Phoenix transforms instantly into Joker. He takes the signature laugh of Joker and begins down a path that shifts the audience’s perspective: What made Joker the creature of Gotham, the villainous legend and the cold-blooded murderer who twists everything he touches? What would Joker be like if he ever actually tried to be normal?

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The film begins and you meet Arthur Fleck, the street clown struggling to get gigs from a Clown Agency, carrying a laminated card in his pocket to notify passerby around him of his uncontrollable laughing condition when it alarms them or puts him in an awkward spot. As an aspiring comedian and clown for hire in a city that is slowly giving up on the low-class population Fleck finds himself constantly harassed or isolated by those around him due to his uncontrollable laughter condition.

One day while sign spinning outside of a Clearance Sale, some Gotham youth steal Fleck’s Clearance Sign, lure him into an alley, and beat him with it. Upset by the circumstances of the attack, Fleck accepts a weapon from a coworker that eventually gets him fired from the Clown Agency. The night he is fired, Fleck finds himself at the mercy of three men who end up jumping him on the train as he rides home. It is here we see Arthur’s first major step into darkness as he proceeds to shoot and kill all three men.

Fleck lives at home with his mother, whom he is the caretaker of and shares a love for television with The tortured man and his mother both watch television and dream of a better life where Thomas Wayne cares about their strife and the host of a Daily Night Show wishes he had a son like Fleck. The entire premise is presented as absurd at its core, but always forces the imagination just across the line to the right side of plausible. The dark, despairing overtones of every scene make it impossible to feel humor most of the time. Still, you find yourself entertained by how Arthur is constantly faced with slapstick action that mixes society, psychosis, violence, and (most surprisingly) hope to form the endless unbearable cycle of Arthur’s pitiful existence. You walk with him through job assignments, attempts to do stand up comedy, and washing his mother in the tub before bed wondering what the hell would take this man and turn him into the green-haired, murderous grin wearing cackler. Arthur Fleck is a study of society failing lower class psychotic children pushed into violence by trauma, abuse, and isolation. His humanity is snuffed out by the circumstances beginning from a very young age. He is a broken child who grows up to break again, until he is convinced that breaking is the only true joy a person can embrace and uplift others with. It becomes the only form of retribution worth seeking out, hoping to warp those who earn the joke being played on them. Violently.

The Joker is Fleck’s craft, his greatest moments on stage. As Arthur Fleck’s life, dreams, and existence cave under the horrors of Gotham’s failing social services, out stretches a side of him bitter to the world and amused by twisting the world around him as much as he can. Joker has a very dark sense of humor and it seems that letting that humor out becomes the only form of joy allowed in his life. That joy is pain and chaos seeded into everything he touches.

When the shell that is Fleck sheds and the sociopath underneath stands in his place, Gotham evolves right along with Fleck, seeming to be reborn in chaos and bloodshed caused directly by the series of events that allows Fleck to embrace his murderous alter ego. Joker is a chaotic force that represents karma for the rich and powerful in Gotham. The story of Joker is the story of Gotham and Batman all from the perspective of Joker’s very first victim: Arthur Fleck’s comically bad life.

What I Liked:

First and foremost, the laugh. Not only does Joaquin Phoenix perfect the chills that hearing that laugh should trigger, the film introducing a refreshing depth to the sound. Joker does not cackle because he can’t contain joy or because he wants to shrink his prey under his amusement. Joker laughs involuntarily. You have no idea what he is feeling when he laughs, made only more ambiguous by how hard the laughter racks him like debilitating coughs.

Joaquin Phoenix takes on the challenge of Joker and provides an honest manifestation of trauma and psychopathy. As compelling as Joker has always been, this was one of the first times that his character was provided humanity and emotions beyond the bloodlust that is Joker. Arthur Fleck is a tragic little man unsure of his purpose in a world that he only wanted to be in awe of him. In a way, he’s a very poetic narrative on yearning for glory in the darkest places. You see Joker long before Arthur Fleck does and when Fleck does grasp the Joker, the realization rocks all of Gotham, exactly as Joker continues to do for the rest of his villainous existence. He quite literally finds his calling by shedding his sanity like a 9 to 5.

This film does an amazing job of providing moments that lead the audience through various emotions, invested in the Joker’s emergence. The two sides of Arthur Fleck are almost a Jekyll vs Hyde shift, except made more complex by the one man beneath both sides. Little by little, each scene shifts that man from Arthur Fleck to Joker, until we are left with the version of the man well known by Gotham and the Heroes that wish to turn back the desperation and psychopathy that fuels Gotham.

What I Didn’t Like:

Too often, we allow our pursuit of deep psychological growth to allow us to glorify violence, poor mental health, and vengeance. While Joker is a believable story of how a broken and abandoned man can turn into a violent and influential attraction. The film, as compelling as it was, had pacing issues that left it feeling longer than it actually was. Outside of Arthur and his mother, most characters held no depth and acted only as factors in the emergence of the Joker within Fleck.

Images Courtesy of IMDB