Joker (2019)

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Jump to "Now Playing" Review for 'Joker: Folie à Deux'

When this first came out, I can remember there being quite a bit of controversy behind it. On one had, you had the "geek" argument that some other guy who wasn't their favourite was playing The Joker, as these things usually go. However, the film touches on some petty sensitive themes, such as mental health, and it almost looked like it was advertising that those with mental health problems will ultimately become violent. To those people, I really must say, it's straight up ignorant to come to such conclusions.

From my perspective, I saw this more as a sort of cautionary tale than anything else. When I say cautionary tale, however, my example comes not from the mental health perspective, but from this idea of Gotham pulling funding from Arthur Fleck's (Joaquin Phoenix/Joker) therapy sessions. This gives way to a very real concept in society, in that there are still places in the world where mental health has that "sweep-under-the-rug" stigma, shrugging it off. It's important to recognize that if you suffer from the wrong set of mental health problems, and you can't get the help you need, shit can happen. It's to be taken seriously!

It's my opinion that this was a daring way to get it all out into the open, using the character of the Joker for familiarity, and to show the dark side of the problem. We ALL know who he is, and we're fully aware that he's gonna end up the most disastrous villain of Gotham City. With all of that in play, it seems easy to empathize with Arthur's character, and to some degree, you want to support him. But once he has your support, you see him start doing terrible things, and the film does a good job of holding up that mirror asking "still supporting him?"

Try to imagine this as a film idea paralleling something more like Rob Zombie's 'Halloween', in that we're watching the slow development of a well-known fictional serial killer. Was it necessary? Not particularly. But one's curiosity does kinda make one wanna peek behind the curtain to see how the monster was created. To be honest, I wasn't really into this upon the first trailer, but curiosity on my all-time favourite villain's possible origin did eventually get the best of me, and I'm not sorry that it did. It was surprising how much I got from it.

The highlight here, as one probably expects, is Phoenix's performance. Heath Ledger still hasn't been dethroned for me, but stiff competition is seen here. Phoenix's Joker is very "Ledgeresque", but he plays the much creepier side of things here, making it an unnerving thriller. Ledger still made you laugh over violent moments (the pencil trick is still awesome), but Phoenix plays things more like some sort of twisted performer, and by the end, he even gives Pennywise from 'It' a run for his money.

Despite some controversy surrounding this upon its release, it has since gone on to be a bit of a cult hit, and I'm often hearing people now suggesting that character-wise, Phoenix is their favourite Joker. And for as much as one can't pry me away from Ledger and Nicholson as the ultimate portrayals of the character, I will give this guy full credit for perhaps being the deepest rendition of him, as opposed to the incredibly half-assed Jared Leto performance. Phoenix provides a fascinating Joker to watch.

For myself, I think this carries a strong message with it about mental health and the steps necessary to take care of it. It's definitely an interesting take on a favourite character's origin, and for yours truly, it works extremely well. For something as dark and creepy as this gets, I do feel like to some degree this is also a bit of an important watch for the more ignorant-minded who seem to think things like anxiety, depression or the like can simply be solved by "smiling."

5/5

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