Joker (2019)

2019 America is crazy enough to prepare us for Joker, and yet none of us were. In recent memory, there hasn't been a theatrical experience that has generated this much fear, anxiety and excitement as this one has. That's because Joker seems real. All too real for many people. There have been many films in the past that study the deranged and unstable in our society. Joker even pays homage to many of those films. But what was once just morbid curiosity in art has become a grim and horrifying reality for the American people. A never-ending string of mass-shootings and terrorist attacks have shaped our crumbling civil society. It leaves people shattered enough to see a film like Joker in an entirely different light. The times we live in will forever define the kind of film this is. Make no mistake, Joker is a dangerous film.  It's the most subversive film to come along since Natural Born Killers. Yet, for this fact alone, Joker is an unparalleled cinematic event. Not to mention, it's pretty damn good.

It's the would-be origin story of Batman's archenemies, placed in a version of Gotham that resembles New York City's not-so-distant past. The Joker's real name is Arthur Fleck, who lives with his ailing mother in a dingy apartment. By day, he's a rent-a-clown, twirling signs outside of closing department stores. But Arthur can't catch a break. In fact, his life is a living hell. He gets beat up in the streets, ridiculed at open mic nights, struggles with meeting women, barely comes home with enough money for food and frequently embarrasses himself by laughing uncontrollably due to a neurological disorder. Meanwhile, as Gotham continues it's decay, a billionaire tycoon with a familiar name rises in politics. Unfortunately for Arthur, he shares a shameful connection with him that his mother never bothered to disclose. Eventually, Arthur snaps. A rough run-in with three boorish Wall Street brokers ends with a Bernie Goetz style bloodbath on the subway, and from there, it's off to the races. Arthur's misery begins to melt away. Suddenly, he comes alive by inflicting merciless violence on the people that have done him wrong. If that wasn't bad enough, the unwashed city dwellers of Gotham find an unlikely hero in Arthur for having stood up to the rich, and unintentionally starts a violent class uprising capable of bringing whatever's left of Gotham to it's knees.

Todd Phillips dares to go where nobody ever wanted to with comic book villains. He has sympathy for the devil. To him, the Joker is a victim of circumstance, jaded and destroyed from a cruel world that has beaten him down one too many times. It's a role that demands tenderness from a sad and empty young man, and a breaking point that transforms him into a cesspool of senseless evil. Joaquin Phoenix delivers the greatest performance he's ever given here, in the greatest performance of 2019, and maybe even the decade itself. He breaks your heart and frightens you to the core. He portrays a genuinely real depiction of mental illness, that dares you into understanding it. Every last quivering bit of it. When he laughs, it doesn't feel maniacal and sinister. Instead, it sounds like a pained cry for help. A man completely helpless in controlling himself. You want to tear up just watching it. Yet, when he crosses into the dark side, all of that sympathy washes away, and in it's place comes loathing and fear. Fleck becomes an agent of chaos, with throngs of adoring fans at his feet. In other words, he finally became somebody.

Joker is centimeters from a perfect film. It would be, albeit, if you've never seen Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. It's impossible to watch this movie and overlook the clear as day tributes and similarities. Todd Phillips is a massive Scorsese fanboy. I've known that since War Dogs, which was an Iraq War copy of GoodFellas. In that sense, we aren't getting a uniquely original piece of work in the story behind Joker, and yet Phillips makes it work tremendously within the setting of the famous world of DC Comics. From there, recycled ideas become something new, and through a contemporary lens, this premise has been given a meaning to audiences as shocking now as Taxi Driver was then. Arthur is Travis Bickle, Rupert Pupkin and Howard Beale all rolled into one psychotic package.

Joker is no laughing matter. It's a landmark in comic book lore, and an important story to tell in film history. Believe the hype. Send in the clowns.