Joker

The mute function on twitter is a mighty thing. It makes that moaniest of social media platforms into a lovely serene place. It can be used to make people, phrases, words and hashtags just disappear. I've used it a lot lately with regard to Joker. A film nobody had seen but everyone had an opinion on. When the screaming reaching deafening levels it was a joy to switch all the eejits off. Does the film deserve all the outrage it seems to have stirred up though? 

Arthur Fleck is a miserable man. Scrawny and drawn, suffering from a psychiatric condition that has him howling with laughter when he's under stress and eking out an existence has a clown for hire while suffering indignity at the hands of children in a filthy Gotham City circa 1981. His only release is enjoying his favourite comedian, Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro, on fine form) on TV while fantasising about becoming a stand up comedian himself and daydreaming about his neighbour Sophie (Zazie Beetz, totally wasted). Then one day he has just had enough and a gift from a co-worker brings everything to a head.

Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as the Joker. The man who laughs. The man who's been terrorising the streets of Gotham for 8 decades now. Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill & Heath Ledger (I'm leaving one out, very much on purpose) all have played the part and each made it their own, each having a place in pop culture history. Now it's Joaquin's turn and the only thing he has in common with the others is the famous make-up. He's, simply put, terrifying. The kind of fella you'd cross the street to avoid and hope he doesn't make eye contact with you. And as scary as he is you'll also feel for him because he's the product of a truly broken system. But empathy can only stretch so far and you'll know the exact moment he steps over the line. Advance word was that his Joker would be the kind of character people would fall for and hero worship. Anyone holding Arthur Fleck up as a role model needs a long hard look at themselves in a mirror. 

Phoenix carries the entire movie on his back and it lives or dies with him and as such it does suffer when he isn't the focus. A couple of major names from the Joker mythology show up and as big a part as they play in his later story they do feel rather jammed in here. That said, events later in the movie do give us a new point of view on their fates that put in interesting spin on things. But it's the Joker's origins we're here to see and here director Todd Phillip's delivers. For a film based on a comic book it's about as far from the feel of modern day superhero movies as you can get. It's grimy, it feels slimy and far too tactile. It wears it's 70's cinema influences on it's sleeve and fans of films like Network and Taxi Driver will recognise a lot. 2 very telling moments involving televisions and guns. An early moment in Arthur's changing room where he's surrounded by other clowns feels exactly like the cafe scenes from Taxi Driver where he, like Travis Bickle, feels totally alienated by the laddish chat going on around him. The now infamous scenes of him dancing on the steps in his red suit (to the sounds of Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll part 2, a song picked no doubt to piss people off) can be compared to Travis in his fatigues and his mohawk, readying to kick off his master plan. There's a lot of deja vu here.

While you're watching this you'll probably wonder what all the fuss was about, why some people are so scared of this film. A dramatic scene halfway through the film brings to mind a notorious real life 1980's vigilante story but here it's whitewashed to make Arthur look like he's in the right. Then the final part of the film starts and there's no denying that it does feel like a call to arms, a call to rise up against privilege, against money. It's edgy and well tbh, exciting but it's nothing that hasn't been said a million times before and yes, we're well aware of the irony of this film made by Warner Brothers no less. Strange Days had crowds storming the cops when they got tired of the brutality, Fight Club had the credit card companies and banks being levelled, real life has it on the news every day in France and Greece and other countries where they aren't afraid of standing up. It's just that in the now, where the fear of disenfranchised and alienated young men is at it's highest Joker seems to have caught the public's imagination but Phoenix does enough good work to stop it from being swallowed whole.

People will probably want to avoid this because of the crudity of Phillip's early comedies but he's left the juvenile shit behind. This is a work of maturity and there's stuff in here that will resonate with a 2019 audience especially Gotham City's contempt for the mentally ill. Phoenix is on fire too in a role that will win him accolades next year but for all the film's bluster it does not have much to say apart from "TADA!!!"

Out in cinemas everywhere now.