It’s been six years since I’ve written a film review. I say that because partly I love to imagine some loyal base of my “film review fans” who’ve been waiting patiently for my return to form. (There isn’t; they haven’t.)
I saw Joker this past weekend — a latecomer — and enjoyed it. I’d been hearing a lot about it, as one does, and trying to keep my head down to avoid spoilers. From the first advertisement images I saw a month or two ago (a shaggy-haired Phoenix walking down a dirty street in a homely coat) to the YouTube videos of commentary and analysis popping up in my feed, I was dubious. Here might be something, I thought, but it also might possibly try too hard. Too hard to be different. Too hard to make a statement.
I’m glad I was wrong.
But that’s not what I’m here to talk about, really. This isn’t a film review based on my opinion. Or, how about this: let’s just get that part out of the way. I liked it. Quite a bit. Phoenix was mesmerizing.
Why I’m really here is to note the larger reaction, the public’s reaction.
A quick scroll down the user reviews of imdb reveal a film appreciated with an almost breathless gratitude. It’s as if certain moviegoers have been awaiting this experience for some time, were afraid Joker might let them down, only to be overwhelmed with relief, and shocked in surprise when it not only met, but exceeded, their expectations.
To this last, it could be said that the bar has been lowered when it comes to superhero film expectations. But that’s too easy. There have been junk superhero films all along, and people have generally been making Hollywood death or disease pronouncements for decades. Plus, Avengers: Endgame was pretty damn good; it’s not like moviegoers have been totally starved for decent fare.
Maybe, I thought, it’s DC fans in particular. There’s not been any good DC films… ever, really. Maybe Wonder Woman, for some…
Anyway, let’s settle things this way: a disillusionment with superhero films is a part of the intensely positive reaction to Joker, but that might be the smallest part of it.
A bigger part, dare I say it, is that — just judging from imdb, anyway — the moviegoer gushing the hardest over Joker might be the type of moviegoer the film resonates with the most; someone who feels isolated, brow-beaten, misunderstood, etc. Not to knock imdb, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s a good user-base there of young single white males. And it’s no secret that young men are the target audience for most movies in the superhero, action, drama categories. So, it’s a match.
More broadly, though, is the state of things. Society, I’m saying. We’ve seen the rise of the antihero before — this isn’t that. Joker isn’t an antihero, Joker is a villain. So why would we cheer that on? Because it’s a story of villainy in response to abuse. Abuse by certain key individuals, yes, but those individuals are dramatizations of a subtext: that the world itself is the great abuser.
Whether deliberately or not, Joker is a Nurture over Nature film. It clearly implies, over its two-hour length, that villains are made, not born. Evil does not exist for its own sake, evil is a reaction. (And, frankly, an “origin” film wouldn’t be much of one if it merely consisted of a villain being born and growing up to wreak havoc as everyone suspected, would it?)
The story goes to great lengths to put Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck through as much abuse and torture as any one of us could really take. He’s repeatedly beaten by groups of men. He’s taken advantage of by those closest to him. He has a humiliating mental condition and is further humiliated when his attempts to fulfill his childhood dream backfire.
Joker is a story of trauma and shame, arguably the two most powerful human experiences that drive emotion. Phoenix himself, in an interview after the film’s wide release, said that his way into the character was understanding that Fleck had suffered this trauma. I would go further to include shame. The shame caused by his condition. By his inability to connect with people, with women, to find companionship.
Finally, one last thing. In a Vanity Fair video with director Todd Phillips breaking down the opening scene, Phillips suggests that directors are “purveyors of tone.” I couldn’t agree more. I’d be hard-pressed to describe precisely the tone that is sustained through Joker, but suffice it to say, it’s “haunting”.
So that’s it. My latest film review after a long, long break. I give Joker an 8/10. My attention wandered in a couple of places and I questioned how the murder of three men on a subway could so quickly turn into a sociopolitical uprising, other exacerbating factors notwithstanding. (If it had been me writing, I would’ve given Joker one more murder to commit before Gotham was taking such notice and angry civilians sought to emulate him.) But for Phoenix’s incredible performance (that laugh! My God…) and Phillips sustaining the tone, this is good one, for sure.