We Live in a Society

Now before I delve into my review of Joker, I first need to explain my massive hiatus and what it means. In late August, I began college, so all of my free time has been swallowed up by college-related activities. Therefore, my posts have been nonexistent, and frankly that may not change for a little while. Now, onto my review of Joker.

I thoroughly enjoyed Joker. Unlike the other movies that I have reviewed, I don’t know if I need to place a warning for spoilers, because Joker doesn’t have much of a cohesive plot. Instead, the movie traces the descent of Arthur Fleck from an ordinary citizen into the murderous Joker. That is both the premise and the plot of Joker.

The biggest strength of Joker is Joaquin Phoenix and his incredible performance as Arthur Fleck. Arthur is an incredibly complex character, and despite the fact that many of his actions are abhorrent, the viewer can’t help but sympathize with him because of his tragic life. The movie also does a great job of characterizing Arthur through minor details that are shown rather than explicitly told. An example of this being the origin of Arthur’s medical condition where he has uncontrollable outbursts of laughter. However, I will say that there was one scene that did a bit more telling than it needed to, though in the grand scheme of things it’s just a nitpick of mine.

However, my favorite part of the movie was the cinematography. Joker is filled to the brim with rich shots. One of my personal favorites is the contrast between a scene relatively early on in the movie and one towards the end. In the early scene, Arthur is staring miserably out of a bus window at the banal Gotham life. In the later scene, Joker is staring happily outside of the window of a police car as the city tears itself apart. The contrast between the two scenes brilliantly highlights the shift in the character while still reminding the audience that this is the same man. And again, this is just one example of the rich cinematic, as well as symbolic, elements present throughout Joker. Another scene that I would love to analyze is the stair scene.

Something else that was phenomenal about the movie was the score. The music was absolutely incredible, and I felt that it was always used appropriately. Joker utilized its music to establish both tension and irony.

The final aspect of Joker that I want to discuss is the mental health aspect. While I personally haven’t experienced depression or other mental illnesses, some of my closest friends have, so I have seen the negative effects of it. Because of my perspective, I was curious to see how Joker would handle this issue, because it really is a controversial issue. I will say, I feel that Joker handled the issue pretty gracefully, because the movie did a good job of drawing attention to the issue of mental health, while at the same time not villainizing it by making it the sole cause of Arthur’s transition to the Joker.

Overall, Joker is a difficult film to talk about and review because of its focus on character rather than plot. I feel that if I were to do the movie the justice it deserves, I would have to analyze the character of Arthur Fleck as opposed to the movie. I may do this in the future but I cannot promise anything. Still, I would highly recommend going to see Joker. The movie is incredibly dark, but it is still very well done. I would give Joker a 9/10.