Film Review - Joker (2019)

Joker is directed by Todd Phillips and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man living with mental illness in 1981 Gotham City while that City deals with a Garbage Strike stinking up the city circumstances it seems keep piling up and up and up on Arthur and there’s only so much a person can take before they snap.

Joker is an interesting movie and it’s one that actually I enjoyed quite a bit for these reasons:

- Firstly Mr Phoenix’s performance is as good as I had heard it was, the way he distorts his body, his physical body language, the way he distorts his face and the way he uses his eyes to convey emotion are all terrific to watch and you never get bored watching him act in this movie and like with Mr Pitt in Ad Astra I hope he has a Best Actor nomination coming his way.

Another performance I enjoyed in this movie is by Mr Robert De Niro as a late night talk show host and while his casting was most likely a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film the King of Comedy I was actually reminded of a former Australian radio host Derryn Hinch and the more I think about De Niro’s performance I could easily have seen someone like Mr Hinch in that part.

- Secondly the film has some great craftsmanship on show and I want to start with the cinematography by Mr Lawrence Sher, there are some great high camera angles, use of space with the large buildings like the old theatre showing Modern Times and the way the overall framing is done it made me think of an old Warner Home Video release of the film if such a thing ever existed plus there is a great musical score by Ms Hildur Guðnadóttir which like the Dark Knight in 2008 uses a lot of strings and its really effective with some great cues.

- And lastly I loved the portrayal of Gotham City in this movie as it really feels like what Christopher Nolan was building in Batman Begins the idea of Gotham as this corrupt, downtrodden, rotten cesspool of a city that was not only losing its way but also going downhill very fast unless someone like the Batman came along to clean it up and while the film has some ties to the Batman universe they are very subtle and I thought well done.

If I do have an issue with the film it’s that the Arthur material and the Joker material don’t quite mesh together the way that I wish it had, the more I think about the film and those 2 sides of it they have a different feel to it and they don’t quite go from one to the other in a way that is seamless they feel like here’s Arthur and here’s the Joker and that transition could have been better I feel.

And so that was Joker and its an interesting film that I enjoyed quite a bit but I can also see why others will not respond to it, this is a dark movie rated MA15+ for a reason and while those like myself really liked that about it I can see why for some it will make them uncomfortable and they won’t like it and I fully understand that, 3 and a half out of 5.