‘Joker’ Review

July 25, 2020 Gabriel

It is emblematic of our times that what could have been a solid comic-book drama is instead little more than the adaptation of a pretty funny internet meme into a pretty so-so film.

Todd Phillips, the man who gave us The Hangover 2 and The Hangover 3, has now presented the world with a “serious” movie, about “society” and “mental illness” and other stuff. Also, the movie has the Joker in it, or at least some character with the same name as the famous Batman villain.

It’s worth mentioning right off the bat that the film exists in a precarious place. Its cultural relevance is due entirely to the fact that it appropriates the Joker character to fit its story, but every attempt to connect the film to the larger world of Batman makes it weaker. If the movie could eliminate all references to Batman, it would certainly be better off, but then no one would see it. As it stands, the whole thing comes off as a low-level remake of Taxi Driver with a bunch of Batman stuff shoehorned in at random places to use as window dressing. In addition, the entire premise is somewhat faulty, as part of what makes The Joker interesting is the fact that he has no real origin story, so giving him one here serves to rob the character of some of his magic.

Now for some praise: Joaquin Phoenix is great in the leading role. He isn’t given much to work with: his character is poorly conceived and some of his dialogue is downright awful, but he makes the most of it and commits 110% of himself to the role. It’s similar to Tom Hardy in Venom. Joaquin Phoenix is one of the greatest actors of all time and he is the brightest spot in this mixed bag of a movie.

The story is pretty basic: a severely mentally ill loner becomes a murderer and political icon after an endless stream of bad things happen to him. This is nothing original, as Falling Down and Fight Club each have already done it in their own way, but it is a compelling story that can be retold every few years provided it’s done with intelligence, skill, and hopefully some kind of original twist. Unfortunately, Todd Phillips, the man responsible for The Hangover 2 and The Hangover 3, delivers on absolutely none of these.

The film discusses mental illness quite a lot, despite not seeming to know what it actually is, how it works, or what mentally ill people are actually like. The psychological issues that people deal with are almost cartoonish in their portrayal and not particularly affecting (although Frances Conroy does an excellent job with her character). It also deals a lot with class struggles: wealth disparity, the discontent of the working class, violent fantasies of devouring the rich, etc. and does so well enough to make the related emotions palpable, while never really going beyond the shallowest level of analysis. The script is fairly on-the-nose in how characters openly discuss the movie’s themes and yet many of them still have nothing interesting or intelligent to say. There are also a few subplots that are very poorly executed and go absolutely nowhere, Zazie Beets’ entire character being the most glaring example.

The film’s biggest issue is its handling of character, which is very unfortunate considering this is supposed to be a character study. The Joker’s motivations are often muddled and it fails to make his descent into madness all that believable. Each incident in his life is strangely disconnected from the others and the cumulative effect required to convince the audience that this film has a point just isn’t there. Are his crimes a logical response to the adversity he faces in life? Is he just plain crazy? Is capitalism responsible for America’s ills? Is our culture corrupt? The film seems to ask all these questions, but I have no fucking clue what its answers are. The movie seems to be trying to say “yes” to all of these things, but never properly states its case as for why.

Technically, the film is pretty well made made, in contrast to the sloppiness that pervades many recent studio movies. The aesthetic is like a more elegant version of Suicide Squad’s neon-vomit, succeeding where that film failed in the looks department. The editing and cinematography are nothing particularly special but they do their job well and help to sell the emotional undercurrent of the story. Todd Phillips’ direction is inconsistent but shines every now and then, with the subway scene and the handful of moments leading up to it being especially well done. The score and soundtrack were pretty annoying, as a lot of scenes would have benefited from silence rather than the constant harassment of shrieking violins and bass, but such is the nature of movies these days.

All that said, the best parts of the movie by far are in the performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Frances Conroy. Conroy plays the sweet, but delusional old mother of the main character to tragic perfection and Joaquin does his best to elevate the movie. While the story falls flat on so many levels, the film often succeeds purely on the strength of Phoenix’s performance. His acting does almost all the heavy-lifting and takes moments that I would normally find eyeroll worthy and transforms them into something genuinely tragic and affecting. In spite of all the movie’s attempts to prevent this, Joaquin Phoenix made me really care about his character and pulled me into scenes when I would otherwise be uninterested. His scene on the Arkham stairwell is a notable high point.

For better or worse, the whole film, with all its contradictions, could probably be summed up in a single scene: Joker’s climactic talk show appearance with Robert De Niro. The dialogue here is awful. Nobody talks like a normal person, but instead they all plainly state the themes of the movie (to the best of their ability). The Joker even goes so far as to lecture De Niro (and the audience) on exactly what the movie is supposed to be about. And yet, for all its hackery, I was riveted. Joaquin Phoenix eats up the screen like few actors are capable of and elevates high-school quality writing to the level of great cinema. De Niro, despite seemingly phoning it in at times, plays a perfect foil to Phoenix in this scene. Todd Phillip’s direction is 100% on point here as well. The scene is a series of bad ideas executed brilliantly and it works surprisingly well.

As a movie, Joker isa bit of a mess. And worse yet, it’s a missed opportunity. There are some things that work really well, but there are a lot of things that don’t work at all. The movie is heavy-handed and unsubtle in that it constantly hits you over the head with the fact that it has “a message” but it trips over its own words so frequently that it becomes hard to discern what that message actually is. Through all the highs and lows there is one sentiment that rings true amidst all the noise:

We live in a society.

And, unfortunately, it’s probably one that we deserve.