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Review: Joker (2019) ★★★½

Joaquin Pheonix in the elevator (Joker 2019)

&NewLine;<p>The most recent adaptation of the DC Comics villain has divided audiences and critics more than any other&comma; and for good reason&period; Todd Phillips’ <em>Joker<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar; is definitely a comic book movie&comma; but it deviates from the vast majority of existing comic book adaptations in a number of important ways&period; First and foremost&comma; <em>Joker <&sol;em>got a much-deserved R-rating from the MPAA&period; While this is certainly not unheard of&comma; it is most often reserved for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;cinemablend&period;com&sol;new&sol;10-Best-R-Rated-Comic-Book-Movies-All-Time-111717&period;html">lesser-known comic book characters<&sol;a>&period; The Joker is possibly the most recognizable and popular comic book villain of all time&semi; making a film about an extremely popular character&comma; and then making it markedly dark and sinister compared to other films inspired by comics was a bold choice&comma; to say the least&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Secondly&comma; Todd Phillips’ <em>Joker <&sol;em>&lpar;co-written by Scott Silver&rpar; has nothing to do with superheroes&comma; even though every other film set in Gotham City centers on Batman&period; In fact&comma; the titular character in <em>Joker<&sol;em> is anything but a superhero&period; He doesn’t have special powers&period; He’s not rich&comma; famous&comma; or handsome&period; <em>Joker<&sol;em> is superhero-adjacent&comma; but it is really not a superhero movie in any way&comma; shape&comma; or form&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Finally&comma; <em>Joker <&sol;em>was not marketed as your typical&comma; run-of-the-mill comic book adaptation&period; There were no trailers with eye-popping special effects&comma; over-the-top fight sequences&comma; or cheesy one-liners from someone wearing a cape&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;-&lowbar;DJEzZk2pc">The official trailer<&sol;a> portrayed the film as a character study&comma; devoid of the qualities we have come to expect from <em>Batman<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Superman<&sol;em>&comma; <em>The Avengers<&sol;em>&comma; and all those other movie adaptations I can’t stand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This brings us to the debate which has riled up diehard comic book fans and casual moviegoers alike&colon; is Todd Phillips’ <em>Joker <&sol;em>an art film or a comic book movie&quest; This question presupposes that a film cannot be both&comma; which is the opinion that I generally hold&period; To call anything an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;art film” is inherently subjective and problematic&comma; but generally&comma; in order to qualify as an art&comma; a film must deviate from past works and&comma; ideally&comma; deviate from the norms of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2019&sol;09&sol;24&sol;toto-the-hero-the-antithesis-to-classical-hollywood&sol;">Classical Hollywood Cinema<&sol;a> in meaningful ways&period; Comic book movies don’t do this&period; In fact&comma; comic book movies are popular <em>because<&sol;em> they conform to a derivative&comma; predictable style&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Joker <&sol;em>is a comic book movie by default&comma; but stylistically&comma; it draws more from Martin Scorcese than Joss Whedon&period; The problem is that comic book stories lend themselves to the mediocre &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;style” of movies like <em>The Avengers<&sol;em> or <em>Justice League<&sol;em>&period; The stories rely on unrealistic coincidences&comma; goofy dialogue&comma; over-the-top characters&comma; and heavy-handed symbolism&period; This means that&comma; ultimately&comma; film snobs like myself will never be fully satisfied with <em>Joker<&sol;em>&comma; nor will diehard fans of the genre&period; I genuinely believe that <em>Joker <&sol;em>is the greatest comic book movie ever made&comma; but &lpar;for me&rpar; that’s also not saying much&period; Todd Phillips tried to have his cake and eat it too&comma; and it resulted in a well-made film that still somehow fell just short of the mark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;11&sol;joker-1-1024x574&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Joaquin Pheonix crying in Joker &lpar;2019&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-image-1697"&sol;><figcaption><em>Joker<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The plot centers on Arthur Fleck &lpar;Joaquin Phoenix&rpar;&comma; a shy&comma; down-on-his-luck clown who lives with his mother&comma; Penny &lpar;Frances Conroy&rpar;&period; Arthur suffers from mental illness&comma; as well as involuntary laughter&period; Even though Arthur views the outside world as ugly and devoid of civility&comma; he dreams of bringing laughter to others&period; Every night&comma; Arthur and Penny watch their favorite late-night television host&comma; Murray Franklin &lpar;Robert De Niro&rpar;&comma; make jokes and entertain all of Gotham City&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While Penny obsesses over a wealthy businessman&comma; Thomas Wayne &lpar;Brett Cullen&rpar;&comma; for whom she used to work&comma; Arthur focuses on improving his stand-up comedy so that one day he can make people laugh like his idol&comma; Murray Franklin&period; However&comma; when Arthur loses his job and access to his medications&comma; his mental state takes a turn for the worse&period; This leads Arthur down a dark and violent path as he tries to navigate a cold&comma; unforgiving world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While <em>Joker<&sol;em> is a highly entertaining film&comma; it sometimes aspires to be something more&comma; something just beyond the reach of a comic book movie&period; The acting and writing are&comma; by and large&comma; very good&period; Usually&comma; comic book dialogue makes me cringe&comma; but Todd Phillips makes a point to keep things at least partially grounded in reality&period; Both Joaquin Phoenix and Frances Conroy give excellent performances as the mentally unstable mother-son duo&comma; and it never feels like they are exploiting mental illness in a shallow way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; stylistically&comma; <em>Joker<&sol;em> is hit and miss&period; There are genuinely stirring moments &lpar;mostly thanks to Joaquin Phoenix and Frances Conroy&rpar;&comma; but there are also moments that make you realize you’re still just watching a comic book movie&period; For example&comma; Joaquin Phoenix dancing down a flight of stairs to a Gary Glitter song felt both out of place and laughably awkward&period; Thankfully&comma; these kind of missteps were not all that common&comma; and much of the film felt just as dark and gritty as the filmmakers intended&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Editor Jeff Groth and cinematographer Lawrence Sher both did an excellent job framing Arthur as a disturbed&comma; unfortunate man&comma; surrounded by the brutality of modern capitalism&period; A great deal of the film’s appeal lies in its stellar visuals&period; Even with a few odd artistic choices in the final act&comma; it never feels like a bland&comma; by-the-books comic book movie&period; It always looks and sounds like a serious character study&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;11&sol;960x0-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Frances Conroy in Joker &lpar;2019&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-image-1698"&sol;><figcaption>Frances Conroy in <em>Joker<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; thematically&comma; <em>Joker <&sol;em>sends mixed messages&period; Subtlety is not a trait that works well with comic book characters&comma; and the notable lack of subtlety is one of <em>Joker<&sol;em>’s biggest drawbacks&period; The symbolism and metaphors are heavy-handed&comma; and yet politically&comma; it’s hard to find where the film really stands&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On the one hand&comma; it tries to shine a light on mental illness and difficulty accessing mental healthcare for the working poor&period; However&comma; at the same time&comma; it villainizes the poor&comma; portraying them as violent anarchists&period; Arthur’s increasing acts of violence stir up a movement reminiscent of Occupy Wall Street or Antifa&period; In the narrative&comma; this group is ultimately portrayed as a weapon of chaos and violence&comma; rather than a justified reaction to wealth and income inequality&period; While the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Joker philosophy” of nihilistic chaos eventually comes through&comma; it gets mixed up with the backdrop of legitimate political unrest&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you go into <em>Joker<&sol;em> expecting a high-brow art film&comma; you’re in for a bad time&semi; if you go in hoping for a high-octane superhero movie&comma; you will also be sorely disappointed&period; However&comma; if you can set aside your expectations of the genre and appreciate the film as something completely new and different&comma; it is well worth your time&period; There are certainly some questionable artistic and ideological choices&comma; but luckily they are overshadowed by quality cinematography and excellent performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Frances Conroy&period; Hopefully&comma; Todd Phillips’ <em>Joker<&sol;em> will lead to even more watchable comic book films in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Joker<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07YLPLVFP&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07YLPLVFP&amp&semi;linkId&equals;015a7609e0c02a4b89798f728b4512dc">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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