Joker

When it was first announced that a Joker origin movie was in the works, many comic book geeks, like myself, became ecstatic. Joker is, without a doubt, one of the greatest villains ever created. Naturally, the hype was high. And due to the films content revolving mass shootings,  it’s also caused controversy. Rather than go into a plot summary, I’m just going to cut right to the chase. Also: I am going into spoiler territory.

Now, does the film live up to the hype? No! Not at all. Now given some critics and websites, for lack of better words, “hard-on” for this movie, I know my answer might seem controversial. But hear me out first, being that I’m someone who DOES NOT go into any movie with biased, predetermined expectations. Joker is a victim of missed opportunities that’s oozing in potential.

The biggest culprits for the film are mainly the screenplay, pacing and editing. The scene construction is haphazardly incoherent that lacks a clear A to Z cause and affect. There are far too many scenes that become rather redundant and drag the movie down. Why? They DON’T add anything new to the story, like Joker watching the late night talk show, or his mother constantly saying, “Thomas Wayne’s a good man. He’ll help us.”, waiting to receive a letter from him. Then, there are scenes that don’t make any logical sense. Case in point, where Joker is able to stroll outside Wayne Manor and touch a child Bruce Wayne outside the gate. As an aspiring filmmaker, I’m aware how hard screenwriting can be. But if you look at a final cut of the film as a final draft of the script, then this movie thought it didn’t need work past the first draft; something Ernest Hemingway once said, “The first draft of everything is shit.”

While Todd Phillips proves he can handle drama/darker stories, he makes some rather peculiar choices. One prime example is when Joker finally embraces his persona, dancing down a flight of stairs, and Rock N Roll (Part 2) plays. As a child, I didn’t like the song and I still don’t. But when the whole film plays romantic songs of the 40’s and 50’s, then suddenly throws in a rock anthem, it becomes intrusive and a moment of self-parody; I was the only one who laughed when that song came on.

The influence of Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy and The Killing Joke graphic novel are overtly obvious here. However, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver seem to miss the mark of those stories. Example: Taxi Driver. While there’s not a ‘plot’ and Travis Bickle too meanders through the story, he still is a character with drive and desire. In one of his lines of narration he says, “All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. …I believe that someone should become a person like other people.”  Bickle wants to belong, and we learn his values of his repulsion towards the dregs and scum of society and humanity.

Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight was a force, pushing an ideology: his goal was to prove to Batman that when things get bad enough, people will abandon their halfhearted morals, one’s that Batman believes people will always have. We don’t get that in this film. This Joker lacks any motivation, drive, desire, etc., other than a casual mention of “I want to be a comedian.” This is what, in the writing world, is referred to as ‘a character with no agency.’ In other words, he’s a paper boat floating down a current, until the plot requires it to shift course, because ‘reasons.’ Here, Joker passively saunters throughout the story, decides to shoot three Yuppies, simply because they were being assholes. And that inadvertently causes an insurrection in the citizens of Gotham to rally behind his actions, and they have an uprising of the poor versus the rich? This political motif comes completely out of nowhere, feels contrived and is supposed to feel it was integrated organically from the start of the story?

Some people say that the films violence is disturbing. Yes, there’s violence. But the extreme violence is only in three scenes. I’ve seen worse violence in films that are far more disturbing. Yet, to the MAINSTREAM audience, going to see a MAINSTREAM movie, with a pop culture character with this level of visceral violence is what’s shocking to them; but only that.

It’s not to say the film has nothing going for it: The production design, score and cinematography are wonderfully rendered to give a bleak and gritty Gotham City. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a wonderfully engrossing performance. The remaining cast, including Robert DeNiro, do the best with what they’re given. However, I feel that because Phoenix’s performance is so good, worthy of an Oscar nomination, it blindsides the moviegoing audience to overlook it’s overpowering flaws. And even his performance isn’t perfect. I know people with mental illnesses and knew someone with the same pathological laughing (Pseudo Bulbar Affect). Sometimes, Phoenix feels like he either forces his laughs or waits for his cue to do so. It’s a tick with those that suffer from it, like Tourette Syndrome. So, those few moments took me out of his performance, if I’m too really nitpick.

This is a film plagued with many glaring issues, misses opportunities to delve into a more personal story of a man, suffering a bevy of mental illnesses, being ostracized by society and fighting a system that casts him aside. The only saving grace is Joaquin Phoenix, but even that can’t save a film with a script poorly executed and direction that is halfheartedly confident.

2/4 STARS