Joker Movie Review
When I saw Joker in the theater I considered it the best movie of the past decade, but I wanted to watch it again to see exactly how good I felt it was. Nearly a year later, I bought the Blu Ray, watched it again, and consider it to be one of the best movies of all time.
There are many reasons I find it so good. First, it’s a cross-genre movie. It’s the best movie about mental health I’ve ever seen and the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen. When I initially watched it in the theater, I felt it was a mental health movie first since director Todd Phillips says this is a stand-alone movie. It is a mental health movie first, but now that I cracked the 11:11 code, I know it’s not a stand-alone movie and is a stealth reboot of the Batman and DCEU franchises too.
Second is Joaquin Phoenix’s acting. Among the best actors in the world, Phoenix kills it (no pun intended) in his performance of a mentally ill Arthur Fleck transitioning into Joker. The different laughs, the sadness, the happiness, the awkwardness of talking to people, are all believable. The most incredible thing of all, though, is that his performance outshines Heath Ledger’s in The Dark Knight. I didn’t think I would see that ever happen. Zazie Beetz was awesome as the neighbor and all of the other supporting actors were great.
Third is the story and style. The grittiness of Gotham in Arthur Fleck’s world is perfectly done. Critics say it owes a lot to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. I’ve seen Taxi Driver twice and while it’s a great movie, Joker is better. I have not seen The King of Comedy. The story is well crafted, tightly edited and there’s never a dull moment even when there could be. The score is haunting.
Fourth is the dark humor. There are some truly funny moments in this movie. The scene where it’s not known if Arthur is going to kill the little person is the most simultaneously tense and funniest scene I’ve ever seen in a movie. Joker listening to the Doctor make fun of him from behind the curtain wondering if Joker has sexual problems, then Joker walking out and awkwardly kissing her is classic.
When I watched it the first time, I had two criticisms. The first was the Thomas Wayne subplot and seeing the Batman origin for the 100th time. I felt it was unnecessary. Now that I know 11:11 is central to the whole movie and its ramifications on the Batman franchise, I no longer consider that a criticism. It’s well done when looking at it in that light.
The second criticism was (SPOILER) Arthur’s imaginary relationship with his neighbor. I could immediately tell in the theater it was imaginary and it was later revealed as if it was supposed to be a twist. Watching it a second time, I think the viewer was supposed to know it was imaginary from the getgo because a big clue is given about the 11:11 code in one of the scenes where the imaginary relationship is occurring in Arthur’s head.
Given that I consider neither one of these criticisms now, this is a flawless movie. Some critics have an issue with Robert De Niro’s performance as comedian Murray Franklin in this movie. I do not. It was good and the character of Murray Franklin, while important to the movie, was not intended to be strong support to the movie anyway. It could have been played by any number of people with performances probably varying among them.
Joker currently sits at number six in the list of best movies I have ever seen. I consider only A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Once Upon a Time in America (European Cut) to be better. That’s awfully good for a comic book movie. Bravo!
Grade: A+