Joker: Surprisingly Few Laughs

Joker (2019)

Joker was a very well constructed and well-acted movie, but I don’t see it as a Joker origin movie. In the comics, cartoons, and even The Dark Knight, the Joker is an unidentifiable wild card. He is not an easily traceable insane person with miles of paperwork as a backstory. I prefer my Joker to be as mysterious to the audience as he is to the Batman. Because of this, I separated Todd Phillips’ Joker from any established DC properties and universes, and took it in as its own entity. On its own, Joker is amazing. It is dark, daring and the story spirals to match the sanity of its lead. Joker, at its core, is the story of a broken man being shattered by the perfect storm of illness, societal stigmas, deception, and economic turmoil. Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant as Arthur Fleck, hitting the all of the right notes as he starts as a sympathetic character and devolves into an irrational psychopath. At no point in this movie is Phoenix ever a hero but his origin prods the darkest impulses in a person’s mind. Joker lionizes Thomas Hobbes’ theories that man is inherently evil and runs with that premise. Save one, every character in the movie does something bad, and that one is barely in the movie at all. This presents the only issue I had with the movie: there is nobody to root for. Everyone is designed to suck, so you don’t want anyone to win. It is like watching a Colts-Steelers game in 2006. I hate both teams, but the product is very watchable and entertaining. And with no hero, there is no winner, so you leave with a weird feeling. I honestly couldn’t talk about it until the next morning, because of the odd feeling it left in the back of my mind. If you can separate reality and fiction, then you will enjoy this movie, but if you can’t, you will be bogged down making connections that aren’t there. Overall, I really liked Joker. It was dark and gritty and didn’t pull any punches. I give Joker 1800 out of 1940 (the year Joker was introduced).