Joker (Movie Review) - A Haunting Masterpiece

Review: Joker by Todd Phillips (9/10)

Entering the theatre this Friday, the last thing I expected was to leave with my brain so exasperatingly strained by the weight of its heavy themes and so vividly real societal observations. If you are expecting an easy film to entertain and excite you, this quite simply is not it. What Todd Phillips has accomplished here is to shake the foundations of comic book cinema to its core.

Starring the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix, Joker depicts the relentless force required to bring a man to the point where he can embody a cathartic super villain regularly fighting a man dressed like a bat. And I’m not talking about falling into a vat of chemicals. No, this force is the chillingly real consequence of societal neglect and abuse — ever so present in our own communities to this day.

Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker — Credit: Warner Bros

Phoenix brings this transition to life through the unassuming character of Arthur Fleck — an aspiring comedian suffering from depreciating mental health problems and abject poverty. Across the film’s two hours, we witness the natural evolution of Arthur from a man of destitution to the charismatic, chaotic character seen for decades across various media depictions.

This is by far a one man show, with supporting cast members Zazie Beetz and Robert De Niro holding impactful but relatively minor roles. This is not to understate their work, with everyone pulling their weight and adding to the believability of seeing Arthur driven to the point of self-aware insanity and crime.

Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin — Credit: Warner Bros

For the avid DC fan out there, you will find a myriad of references to the source material, the inclusion of a young Bruce Wayne interacting with and being affected by a pre-Joker Arthur holding much of these subtle and not-so-subtle Easter eggs. Without spoilers, there are some interesting links to the greater Batman mythology explored in this film. For that alone, I would argue that this is unmissable for any long-time Bat fan.

Dante Pereira-Olson as a young Bruce Wayne — Credit: Warner Bros

Thematically, Joker has attracted a significant amount of negative attention from press, projecting future mass shootings as a result of a perceived lack of social responsibility by the director and studio. The irony of this is that the film directly addresses important problems in the world today, messages many are wilfully ignoring — perhaps in part due to its status as a comic book movie. As a fan of the material, particularly having read Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, this is heavily disappointing. The Joker has been written as a complex character within the comics for longer than the movies have portrayed him as such. For this to be undermined by a wilful ignorance perpetuated by pretentious critics and filmmakers alike disregards the work of many classic and current writers.

So, what I am really saying is, don’t miss out on this film because of a few sceptics and pessimistic projectionists. Prepare yourself, settle in, and let Phillips create the world of Gotham in a way unlike you have seen it before. A sequel may be unnecessary and maybe even unwanted by both Phillips and Phoenix, but if there was to be one, it would be an intriguing thought to witness the Bat himself realised to this level of depth on the big screen.