As Logan proved in 2017, you can make an emotionally driven, R-rated drama about a violent character from a comic book that is different from the typical superhero-movie mold, yet still have it be a solid and successful film. As Joker proved, by raking in over a billion dollars worldwide, the public is more than willing to watch a character drama about the arch nemesis of DC Comics’ most popular superhero, even if Batman never makes a real appearance. The Joker is certainly one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, but there are undoubtedly several other reasons why Joker was so successful.

Pros

Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenal
Score adds a lot of ominous atmosphere to the experience
Acting from the supporting cast is quite good

Cons

Longer than it needed to be
Unnecessary plot twists that weren’t really plot twists
Not much subtlety to be found in this film
Overt political messages of the film conflict with itself

Plot & Thoughts

Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a middle-aged man working as a clown in the early 1980s of Gotham City. The clown hiring agency for which he works sends him to different places, like a small record store to dance out front and hold up Sale signs, or children’s hospitals to put smiles on their faces. Unfortunately for Arthur, he tends to get the crap kicked out of him by random thugs in the streets on a somewhat frequent basis in his attempts to earn a living and support his disabled mother in their tiny, crummy apartment. It might be because he looks meek and unintimidating. It might be because of his awkward inability to interact with people. It might be because he has a vague condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at random moments. Whatever the reason, Arthur has to deal with a lot of crap on a depressingly regular basis.

Eventually, Arthur gets fed up trying to just survive in this harsh world. He tries his hand at stand-up comedy. He tries to resolve issues from his mother’s past involving the billionaire Thomas Wayne. He stands up for himself on the subway when three Wall Street thugs start attacking him. However, since this is a dark character-drama/origin story about Batman’s greatest villain, you can expect that his doing all these things has consequences, for him and others around him. Namely, when he stands up for himself against the Wall Street kids in the subway, he kills the thugs and accidentally sets off a social movement in the city. People who feel they aren’t getting a fair cut of the deck in life start to associate with the mysterious clown who killed the rich jerks on the subway. People march in the streets and protest with plastic clown masks against the rich upper-class citizens of Gotham.

As someone who couldn’t care less about whether or not this is an accurate or devoted portrayal of the Joker and his origin story, I think Joker does a good job of making the character and his experience interesting. It’s rare for villains to get the main role in a film. Most often, a villainous character is best served as the antagonist because of how difficult it can be for people to relate to that character if they know too much about him or her. How do you make a murderous psychopath in clown makeup anything more than quirky or just disturbing to the average person who doesn’t have homicidal tendencies and actually portray them as a sympathetic character with some sort of deep emotional story? It’s not an easy question to answer, even with such an iconic villain. Regardless of how much you may like a villain in their traditional role, if they are unrelatable, they can become boring very quickly. To make Arthur relatable, Gotham City and its inhabitants act as the antagonists by constantly kicking him while he’s down. This makes his inevitable metamorphosis, from poor sap to psychotic killer, seem a little more justified.

While the method of making Arthur relatable mostly works, I have a slight issue with what comes along with it as a result. Joker is not a subtle film and often opts for overt over subtlety in its storytelling, and it squanders some good moments or ideas in the process. The girlfriend story arc is one such miss. The arc between Arthur and Batman’s daddy is another, to some extent. However, where I draw my biggest complaint is in how it latches on to a political message of “kill/eat the rich” when it’s a major motion picture that made billions of dollars.

It’s similar to how in 2012, The Lorax, a story by Dr. Seuss about a mythical creature who is dedicated to protecting the environment and stopping pollution, was made into a major motion picture by Hollywood. An animated version of the story already existed, but Hollywood was determined to keep remaking the classic Dr. Seuss stories until it ran out of IPs. The Lorax remake happened to focus on how making money at the expense of the environment is a terrible sin, yet Hollywood and the motion-picture companies behind these messages that often appear in their films are all guilty of being significant polluters. Perhaps I’m being unreasonable in pointing out the hypocrisy here. But when many real people certainly feel the way the citizens of Gotham do about the real world, I wonder what this movie is really trying to say when their savior is a psychotic killer in clown makeup.

Regardless of whatever point the film is trying to make, I still enjoyed Joker. This is mainly due to the quality of acting from the cast, especially Joaquin Phoenix. I’ve long believed in his acting abilities ever since I saw him in Gladiator and I’m glad he was recognized for his acting capabilities here. Similar to how Daniel Day-Lewis commanded every scene in There Will Be Blood, Phoenix’s performance captivates you and keeps you interested in Arthur’s story, even if you might find it predictable or even despicable.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

I wouldn’t call Joker an innovative masterpiece that’s reimagined the character and his origin in a dramatic new way. I wouldn’t call Joker a smart film that is really saying a lot more under the surface, either. I’d simply say it’s a dark, interesting movie that manages to tell a compelling story and give Joaquin Phoenix a chance to flex his acting muscles. Overall, I enjoyed it.

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