But this new vision is more about a mentally ill man drowning in the lies, seediness & the filth of a crime-ridden Gotham. A film about what created Joker and more importantly, what his character is about to become if he is to return for a sequel. If you look as Gotham as a heavily pregnant crime-addicted character that is about to give birth to the Anitichrist…you won’t go wrong
I will just get this out of the way, Joaquin Phoenix is EASILY my favourite (to-be) Joker.
Arthur Fleck is a failed comedian that dreams of making it in stand-up comedy. He works a soul-destroying job as a sign-holding clown in the dirty, decaying, super-rat infested streets of Gotham City. Arthur also has a horrible condition that makes him burst into what seems like painful spouts of laughter in the worst possible situations. If things ain’t bad enough, he has a near incestuous relationship with his mentally ill mother in a dark, cramped Gotham apartment. Nice picture painted, yeah?…it’s not.
Arthur isn’t very funny, his material is terrible, painful and tragic to watch. His condition makes life hell for him on a daily basis, other people’s view on “what he finds funny” is so distorted.
He is such a pitiful character, and I really had a lot of sympathy for him. There was one scene on a train that made me feel for the guy. He carries this card around with him stating that he has a condition that makes him laugh at the wrong times. You don’t know if you wanna hug the guy or get a restraining order. The acting from Phoenix is as good as what people are saying. I was gonna elaborate on his performance, but folks, we already knew this was going to be so good.
We watch Arthur’s world fall apart as Gotham starts to fail and slowly consume him. His much-needed treatment is being cut due to funding issues, leaving a very mentally unstable man on the verge of a breakdown without his medication.
The character development is scary good, the story & script are both fantastic.
We see Arthur’s view of comedy & laughter take a dangerously mental unstable turn when he realises his violent actions have started a chaotic uprising in the streets of Gotham. He is beginning to feel the love, recognition and social interaction that he craved, the love that stand-up comedy denied him for years. And what is the symbol of this uprising? – a clown mask. Gotham City and its broken society created him and they’re about to witness the birth of one of its most infamous and evil villains, The Joker.
Joaquin Phonix certainly went the full Daniel Day-Lewis for this role. He really brought something so new, so unpredictably, mouthwateringly dark to the sugar-coated DC Universe. Although not very graphic with the violence, Joker is most certainly not a children’s movie. The best about it, this hopefully is only the beginning, there is still so much more development to be done and I hope he returns for more. This is a movie about the birth of a character we all know and love. What drove him to be the man he is about to become. Now that we have established he is Joker, then I want to see more.
As always, thanks for reading.
Moviehooker Score: 10 Happy Faces Out Of 10
Words by Gary Gamble
Founder/Owner/BigCheese @ Moviehooker
