I’m taking a little break from writing about football, this time I am delving into something estranged from my usual sports statistics and watching a horde of men kick a ball about- I’m rating a movie, yes the much anticipated Joker (2019) movie. BUT BEFORE YOU PROCEED TO READ THIS ARTICLE, I must warn you there are definite spoilers- so go treat yourself to a cinema ticket, and buckle up because this movie portrays the gruel transformation of a man, to monster. The cackling criminal mastermind is played by Grammy award winning Joaquin Phoenix, who having the joker’s character passed onto him by the likes of Jared Leto, and Heath Ledger. The movie is directed by Todd Philips, who also directed The Hangover (2009) which shows he’s no stranger to creating laughs- but this movie emits a new entire different kind of laugh than that of what Philips has directed before...
As I hinted before Todd Philips wasn’t really the kind of director that people would expect to direct a violent and mentally disturbing film, but he’s shown his capabilities by taking this chance by the horns. The film really conveyed how a failed comedian’s dreams come to light, putting it within the reach of his hands mockingly before taking it right away again. Phoenix plays a man by the name of Arthur Fleck- a middle aged man who still lives with his mother, taking brilliant care of her in her old, fragile, age. We see lots of darkness shown both physically and transmitted to you mentally by how life actually treats Arthur- you witness him being brutally beat up more than just once throughout the movie which has no shortage of pure red blood. The streets of Gotham are first shown to be a boring, modern looking valley full of bustling shops and trouble making teens who wouldn’t hesitate to kick the living hell out of a clown- the scene then cuts to Arthur forcing himself to smile and frown.
Arthur having an illness that causes him to laugh whenever he is sad, or uneasy, obviously meaning he has an incredibly hard life. A scene that really shows his struggle and isolation from the society that lives outside his TV lit living room- when he attempts to entertain a young boy by pulling silly faces after he notices the toddler looking on at him re-thinking his own life on the bus. The mother of the child proceeds to take the child away and scold Fleck, causing him to erupt in distressed laughter. After he controversially drops a handgun whilst performing for sick children in a hospital, his manager then immediately disposes of him, not wanting his company to show any more bad rep. This causes him to go into a new low, pushing him even further, and further. Later he’s confronted by a few young men who are shown to be neatly dressed, but incredibly disruptive to fellow passengers. When Arthur begins to feel uneasy he starts to laugh. The three men take it as offense and begin to beat him up, pushing him even more into the depths of his dark mind- he eventually ends their lives brutally with the same handgun he dropped onto the hospital floor. This marked the rise of the Joker and his crowd of followers.
After his first three casualties, the young bullies, he runs frantically wondering what he’s just done with what possibly seemed to be the last part of his sanity before running into a toilet and engaging in a slow dance whilst looking upon himself in the clown makeup in the mirror, showing his change is well, well underway.
The movie kind of got to the point in his forced-smile scene at the beginning, it has a sense of foreshadowing of what actually goes on in his head during this transformation. The color red is excessively saturated during this movie, from Fleck’s clown makeup, to the blood gushing out of his last victim’s guts penetrated by a pair of scissors. Gotham, as it was first shown, is a different place when it’s dark. After the first “killer clown attack”, which ironically sounds like something that would happen today, the massive faction of clown goons arises- which I found really cool. They seemed to be some sort of cult which I likened to the more modern Joker’s goons, who would later help him in his misfits and plans against a certain mask and cape clad man. Coming back to the topic of the city of Gotham, the place is shown to be absolutely trashed and riddled with crackling flames whilst the horde of clowns overruns the city’s law enforcement. It’s got plenty of crashed cars, fires, and anarchy to show you it’s clearly not okay there.
A scene shortly afterwards the one I’ve just described, portrays how our future hero of batman becomes who he is nowadays- a little boy among his parent’s dead bodies weirdly looking not all that bothered, but more hell-bent on vengeance upon those clown men who ended his father’s stone cold politician super-reign, which I thought was a nice neat addition to the movie, foreshadowing the actual whole batman story. It throws in what Wayne’s father was like, as he wasn’t shown much in past installments and portrayals of the batman universe- not someone who is shown to be a good person but rather a corporate driven, steel cold, and suit clad businessman.
Joaquin Phoenix, the man behind the joker in the movie went through extreme weight loss to achieve perfection of Arthur Fleck’s insane character, showing that what he goes through really empties a human body. Phoenix has stated it made him go crazy due to obsessing over his prep for the role, drawing him away from social and family life. However Joaquin described to be empowering, as he was determined to execute the perfect Joker.
My thoughts overall on the movie? I found it to be very good. It shows a brilliant example of character development in Arthur Fleck as he suffers pretty much through the whole movie, with some of the only bright lights during the movie time being his love interest neighbor who later notices he’s got problems, and stops seeing him. Excellent character representation of how Arthur is a thinned out, troubled, wannabe comedian who later begins to think his life is so bad, it’s funny. Every light is turned into gloom for Fleck. Speaking of light, the movie is quite a dim one, setting a very gloomy tone to Fleck’s life which I found to be a very good technique. I enjoyed the sense of anarchy it gave as the fires lit up the final scenes of the movie- then cutting to the joker adjusting his fake makeup smile with his own smears of blood whilst his goons cheer on. A very good portrayal of what a darker joker, and how future jokers could definitely be shown to add more interesting elements into not only the batman films- but potential standalone Joker movies?