“Don’t you
have to be funny to be a comedian?”
A journey
into madness begins with a single step.
And the
first step is a smile. Cause you gotta smile.
The formation
of a legend begins here, and the brilliance of Phoenix transforms him from a
frail clown to the figure that will become something more. The Joker is not
just an anarchist out to destroy systems of power, nor chaotic for the sake of
chaos. He's much worse. He's what I would say as organized chaotic, in that he
always has a plan, he always has a pull and that he always evolves.
What Phoenix
brought to the role is an expansion of whatever has come before on the
cinematic screen - bringing in the failed comedian, the jilted lover, the lost
son and the delusional madman. Most of all, he made the movement. The Joker is
not just a man, he's a force of nature. Just like Bruce, he inspires a madness
in people. For the Bat family, it's productive madness. While for Joker, it's...something
much worse.
Most of all,
unlike Bruce, he really doesn't care. We didn't get to that, because this seems
like another of the stories the Joker would tell a shrink before he either
brutally murders them or makes them fall in 'love' with them.
The arrival
of Joker and the downfall of Arthur Fleck happens slowly and builds to a crescendo.
For me, it starts and ends with one word.
Trust.
Arthur loses
everything over the course of the movie. A ‘friendly’ gesture ends up in him
getting fired and betrayed. A love for his mother ends in him losing his
understanding of his roots. And a delusion of a neighbour becomes a love’s labour
lost. And most of all, a loss of himself as his hope of becoming more than his affliction condemns him to not just mediocrity and public humiliation, but also murder.
By the end, there is little left of Arthur Fleck, devoted son, loving clown. There are very few superlatives I cannot reserve for what Joaquin Phoenix has done, and he had me transfixed. The hour passed by without me noticing, and I groaned as the interval came on. But then, as the film drew to a close, I realized he was the only one doing it.
By the end, there is little left of Arthur Fleck, devoted son, loving clown. There are very few superlatives I cannot reserve for what Joaquin Phoenix has done, and he had me transfixed. The hour passed by without me noticing, and I groaned as the interval came on. But then, as the film drew to a close, I realized he was the only one doing it.
The big
problem in the film are the caricatures! Yup, Arthur is a nicely fleshed out
character but what about everyone else. Thomas Wayne is the uncaring philantrophist
with a heart of stone, Penny Fleck is the delusional and abusive mother, Sophie
is the alluring but out of reach neighbour while Murray is the know-it-all talk
show host. They are nothing but props (unlike the gun) in his story, and his themes
– agents of a folklore the Joker wished to tell.
But then
it's a joke nah. Not everyone would get it.
So, I give
it 8.5/10
+The protagonist and his evolution are captivating
+Wonderful exploration
of themes
+Brilliant
look at a decaying city
+The
wonderfully inserted homages and references
-Rest of the
cast are caricatures
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