Joker (2019)

Director: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz

Synopsis:
A professional clown struggles with mental illness in a time of heightened tensions in Gotham City.

Impressions:
DC films have a habit of whiffing more than their Marvel counterparts, so I wasn't that interested when I first heard this movie was being made, but some of the initial promotional material managed to catch my interest. The groundswell among audiences (as opposed to the more mixed critical reception) pretty well convinced me to see it in theaters. I'm pretty sure this is the first film I've actually seen in theaters all year and I'm glad I did. This is my favorite movie of the year so far, though I've admittedly only seen a small selection of the year's offerings as of yet. It's a great character study of a deeply disturbed, downtrodden individual and Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of Arthur Fleck is first-rate. He may not get an Oscar nod for this, but he should. I like how the character plays on your sympathy, then pushes that sympathy to the limit before pushing past the line. The performance itself is more than enough, but I also have to credit the physical transformation Phoenix went through to play the emaciated Fleck. The fact that we the viewer see things from Fleck's delusional perspective is quite effective.

The setting is a perfect match for the tone of the story. I love how grimy and miserable it is. It was a good idea to make the movie a period piece, lowering the tech level and evoking the tone of crime dramas from the late 70s and early 80s.

I also want to highlight the psychological effect of the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir. She came up on my radar when I was watching Chernobyl and her style is well-suited to the material. The droning strings in the bathroom sequence in particular has a lot of punch.

There was a lot of chatter and natter both in the lead-up to the film's release and immediately following it. It's interesting to see how both sides of the aisles project their politics, hobbyhorses and bugbears onto the film and I like that the movie itself is somewhat ambiguous, unlike a number of more hamfisted pictures out there.

Provided you can handle the dark tone and depressing subject matter, this is definitely a film worth seeing and I readily recommend adding it to your collection.

Rating:
Own It