The first time I saw this movie I was seriously disappointed. As I fight my way through the DC universe, I watched this again with low expectations. Part of my problem with the film is that it is about the Joker. I’m not a DC fan by any stretch, but Jack Nicholson made the character iconic, and Heath Ledger played him as one of the scariest villains in movie history. Joaquin Phoenix turns him into a loser with a low IQ and mental health issues. Although he does a good job with the role, it feels wrong for that character. So, I tried to look at the movie again as if it wasn’t about such an established character and franchise.
The acting is great. I don’t know if I would have given Phoenix an Oscar, but I understand why he won one. Arthur Fleck and his mother are legitimately interesting characters, even if Fleck’s journey from the beginning to the end of the movie is somewhat nonsensical.
The story, on the other hand, not so great. I’ll discuss more in the Spoilers section, but this movie needs to either be deep (it isn’t) or have a great character story about Arthur’s transformation into the Joker (it doesn’t). Instead, it’s just a long, dark movie about a sociopathic loser.
It’s a fine movie, better than a lot of the DC entries, but it only gets a 5. I am shocked that the IMDB movie is 8.3. 8.3! Scorsese and De Niro’s Casino is only 8.2 What the hell is this? Some of the most glowing reviews lean on the class warfare element of the film, but not only does Fleck not care about class warfare, the movie’s treatment of the topic is sparse and rather lame.
Spoilers
I want to enjoy Arthur’s journey from loner to murderer more, but it’s just not great. He killed the first three guys in self defense, and then saw people celebrate it as murders because they were rich. Is he supposed to be turning into the Joker because he wants to be liked? Ok, super strange motivation for DC’s Joker, but that could be something for a regular movie. Then, the message gets garbled with the other stuff in his life.. Are his hallucinations caused by his medication? If not, why do they stop once he starts murdering people? How does he figure out that he’s hallucinating, his mom’s records? Regardless, the movie would be much better without the entire hallucination subplot. It adds nothing.
Regarding the class warfare plotline – this has been done a million times, from hipster classics like The Outsiders to teen TV like Veronica Mars. Usually, there is some attempt to unwrap underlying issues. Here, Fleck kills three assholes on a subway, and without anyone knowing that they are assholes, a huge chunk of the population gets excited because three rich kids died. Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think people are anywhere near celebrating killing people just because they are moderately successful. If they were each a major piece of a health insurance company, maybe. But, low level financial employees? If the movie did even a cursory dive into the people who put on the Joker masks to make a political statement, that might be intriguing. Joker then makes a big speech about why he’s killing people before he shoots De Niro, saying nothing that should be new or inspiring to anyone familiar with how the world works. This is not a well developed storyline, no matter what the reviews say.
My Score
IMDB Score
RT Critics
68
RT Audience
89