JOKER
Wow!
This one is a powerfully dark examination of an already mentally ill man (Arthur Fleck) on the margins of Gotham City society who descends into utter madness and ultimately adds in violence, to become a folk villain/folk hero lord of chaos in a hellacious 1970s looking city. IMHO this makes for a more compelling Joker origin story than a chemical executive who falls into a vat of acid and emerges as the Joker.
This is not a normal comic book superhero type of movie. Do NOT bring your kids. Batman isn’t in it (other than as child Bruce Wayne).
The filmmakers took a detour off the current Hollywood movie highway here. Hollywood hasn’t made movies like this for 40 years or more. Basically, the studio let director Todd Phillips make an ‘art film’ on a big budget. The best comparison is probably Taxi Driver, but this is much darker and also more violent. IMHO, the acting is equal or better too. The director and Phoenix toy with the audience a bit so you’re not completely sure what’s really happening and what is just inside this madman’s mind at times. (Think Fight Club). Taxi Driver’s De Niro (a late night tv show host) adds in some good acting as a supporting character. I would say the violence is similar to, but more intense than that in De Niro’s Taxi Driver and Deer Hunter.
The cinematography is phenomenal and conveys a foreboding, dark, grimy, and crime ridden Gotham City. Trash is piled up in the streets. Bums, robbers, hookers, vagrants, thugs, and shady characters abound throughout the city. I imagine this is what NYC was like before Giuliani. The JOKER’s Gotham City looks sort of like the NYC in Taxi Driver or Midnight Cowboy but done even better. I don’t know if anywhere in today’s NYC could even pass as this hell hole anymore. Maybe a few places in South Bronx? The credits indicate that they used Newark, NJ for some of the shoots. I guess that makes sense.
The acting is superb. Joaquin Phoenix does a better (and much different) Joker than anything we’ve seen before. Frankly, this show is more about Arthur Fleck than the “Joker”. The Wayne family are corporate bad guys here. There is an element of Robin Hood too.
JOKER won first place at some big film festival in Italy. Look for best actor and possibly best picture, and some minor awards too at the Oscars. This one is real, real good. They’ll be studying it in the film schools for years and decades to come.
Oh yeah, this Joker has some nifty and quirky dance moves.
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Last edited: Oct 11, 2019