Joker

I had previously given up on DC comics’s film endeavors. I saw a few and they were all terrible. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the bloated, confused, deus ex machina – solved disaster of Batman versus Superman or the underwritten, trailer cut, mess of a movie that was Suicide Squad. Heck, I don’t even like the Christopher Nolan’s Dark knight trilogy that much. I’ll admit the second one is a true masterpiece and Heith Ledger’s performance as the Joker is legendary, but I thought the first one was just alright and I kind of disliked the last one. So I decided to stop watching them. I like Marvel comics better anyway (I’m a big comic book fan) and the Marvel movies, though not the most complicated or innovative, are always well shot, well acted, fun and intriguing just enough to satisfy my superhero kick. And for the most part, I’ve heard I didn’t loose out on much. But than this movie came along and it started winning prizes before it even came out and all the reviews were amazing and it wasn’t a part of the DC universe and Oscar nomination rumors started spreading and two good friends of mine wanted to see it so I was like: „allright I’ll watch it“. So what did we get with Joker?

Let me start off by saying, that this is not a typical superhero movie. In fact, there is hardly anything „super“ about it. It’s a story about a man slowly descending into madness. Secondly, this movie is gritty. It presents its kind of dark pessimistic realism right in the first scene with the radio informing us about the garbage strike, which acts as a great piece of visual storytelling later in the movie, and Artur getting beaten up by an adolescent street gang (that’s not a spoiler, it’s literally the FIRST scene). And it gets worse. Way worse. Watching this movie feels like receiving one gut punch after another, each one worse than the last one. I think the writers just thought of the saddest, most depressing events they could possibly imagine, put them in an ascending order and voila – we have a movie. But Sharknado is also full of tragic events (mostly people getting eaten by sharks) and it doesn’t hit anywhere close to the emotional depth and impact of Joker and that is in big part because of Joaquin Phoenix’s (whom I didn’t know prior to seeing this, which is a sin, judging from the reaction of my friends) performance. He is rumored to receive an Oscar nomination for this and I think deservedly so. He clearly thrown himself into this role. Everything from the big things like his substantial weight loss, through the carefully controlled facial expressions, to little details like his „clown running“ (that one got stuck in my mind, he just runs exactly how a clown should) is meticulously crafted and perfectly executed. He is so good, that you can’t help but feel a little compassion for the murderous madman you’re seeing on the screen. The cinematography of this movie is also incredible. I can only think of one shot that felt out of place. All the set designs, lighting and costuming play into the dark, haunting atmospere, looming throughout the film, that is very rarely and very sharply contrasted with unexpected moments of almost absurd humor (fitting the clown theme) that feels kind of ironical on the heavy emotional background. And as a cherry on the top – it has great music. The soundtrack composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir fits the movie very well, but more interesting to me are the diegetic (meaning: the characters can hear them) songs and how the movie uses them. And they also played White Room at the end, reminding me of how awesome that song is (seriously, I’ve heard it like 20 times since seeing the movie).

I only have a two real issues with the film. The first one is the ending. It left the things very open, but it seems to suggest, that the events might not have happened and I hate the „it was all just a dream“ storyline so much, but luckily, we don’t know what really happened due to Artur being an unreliable narrator and we will probably never know, so I can interpret it however I choose. My second problem is the inclusion of young Bruce Wayne. I don’t mind his father being there as a nice nod to the fans, but the scenes with Bruce (especially the one in the end) felt like the studio jumping frantically around you, winking unstopably and saying: „Did you know that this is inspired by Batman? Don’t you want to go watch some of his movies, or buy some bat-toys for your kids?“. It felt forced and I think it was the obligatory studio interference in a movie that was otherwise left alone. It also seemed like a set up for future films, but Joker is supposed to be a standalone. That leads me to a fear I have. I don’t want this to get a sequel, because it isn’t created to have a sequel. All the main plot points (apart from Bruce) were addressed so there really isn’t much to go on. But the movie broke the box office October record for its opening weekend, grossing 234 million dollars worldwide and I just fear that the studio will come in being like:“So guys, we know you didn’t intend to make another one, but the first one made a loooooot of money and if you’d make a second one you’d get more of that money (wink, wink)“. But for now I’ll hope for the best and enjoy it for the great movie it is.