This has to be one of the great coups in marketing history; Joker has finessed an art film into a blockbuster merely by association. You call this film “Arthur Fleck,” a perfectly reasonable title, and you see a painfully insignificant man slowly consumed by madness. It plays like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and should have the box office to match. However, if you title the same film “Joker,” you tell us it’s a Batman-prequel-origin-story, and suddenly it’s like we’re watching The Avengers*.
We aren’t, of course. No matter what you think of this film, it will receive more attention than the subject matter would suggest. Is that a good thing? You tell me.
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a professional clown by trade with the lucrative bank account to match. He takes seven different medications to keep him balanced, but none of them will curtail his embarrassing habit of laughing during stressful situations; he keeps a laminated card to share the explanation for his affliction with an unsympathetic public. That only goes so far – now he has an excuse for being a weirdo but that does nothing to alleviate the ill-will developed. Arthur lives at home with his shut-in mother (Frances Conroy). She spends her free time penning SOS letters to Gotham City’s wealthiest man and her former employer, Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen). The roaches in their seedy apartment have a better chance of getting the aid she seeks.
Inspired by his hero, talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), Arthur wants to be a stand up comic; this dream is hindered considerably by Arthur’s emotional instability and, quite frankly, lack of a sense of humor – which seems odd for a clown, no? De Niro’s role, and this entire movie for that matter, is a nod to Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. 37 years from now is there gonna be a film where a sociopathic comedian crashes Joaquin Phoenix’s talk show?
The film starts with the waning snippets of Arthur’s devolution – his failing job, his failing therapy, his failing home life, his imaginary relationship with neighbor Zazie Beetz. When a co-worker hands Arthur a gun to defend himself, it’s just a matter of time before Arthur uses it –ironically- to become a hero vigilante of sorts. This sets off a chain reaction by which uncivil Gotham devolves into the anarchy that will eventually require a Bat Man to find order again. But that’s another film. This one is about turning Woody Allen into Son of Sam.
Heath Ledger is still my favorite Joker; that’s not gonna change anytime soon. But Joaquin Phoenix adds a different component to the instability of this character we know so well … desperation. Todd Phillips version sees Joker not as a megalomanical opportunist, but a product of years of societal abuse. There’s a more flawed humanity and pathetic frailty to this characterization which makes his violence all the more shocking. Seriously, imagine Woody Allen pulling out a .38, capping a guy, and realizing in the aftermath that he felt much less remorse for the morality than fear of getting caught.
Joker is a deep film. While Phillips has abandoned entirely his ability to tell a joke (ironic, no?), he introduces a notion that hasn’t fully formed elsewhere: the idea of Batman being about class warfare.
I’ve always thought of Batman as having justice and moral right on his side, which compensates for his clearly illegal actions … but, what if Batman was not exactly the product of a broken home so much as a 1%er attempting to control the 99%? Do we not feel more for Arthur as the product of no father, an insane mother, and a society riddled with hate? Young Bruce Wayne was shielded from all of that, no? At least until his parents were murdered, that is. I can’t say I sympathized with Arthur or am ready to renounce my Bat-allegiance; I just found this Joker a far more sympathetic character than I would have imagined.
Two major quibbles I have with this film are as follows: the first is the thesis that mass murder and mental illness are linked. It’s a favorite self-absolving copout of the “thoughts and prayers” crowd to connect the two and assume that mass shootings are simply a side-effect of mental illness. Historically, Joker has always been a madman of sorts, but never quite portrayed as a potentially normal guy off his meds. However, as Joker has never quite made the sanity ranks of, say, Lex Luthor, I’ll give this quibble a pass.
The second and more dangerous charge, however, is Todd Phillips use of the left-leaning mob arisen out of Joker’s Bernhard Goetz-style vigilantism. This is a serious and fairly dangerous misread. The idea that the Joker’s dispatch of three Wall Street assholes would give rise to a mass “V for Vendetta” anti-establishment movement is inherently incorrect. No matter how shitty their surroundings, societal protesters of our age are much more likely to rise out of victimhood from violence or authority, not one who “got away” with it. While it’s impossible to miss the “RESIST” signs among the clown-faced masses, it needs to be pointed out that current protesters from the left have far more respect for rule of law than the current White House occupants or their enablers, all of whom genuinely live in the gray area between law and lawlessness. Lemme put it this way – the people who get on talk shows and mansplain why the President’s illegal actions are not actually illegal are never the ones wearing pussy hats. Insisting we live in a world where the left turns to anarchy instead of horror in the face of murder is a slap in the face to people searching for equality.
It seems like Todd Phillips aimed for Scorsese, but I think he made a Zack Snyder film. It’s a good Zack Snyder film, but it leans in odds directions, not the least of which is making a hero out of an unrepentant mass murderer. Well, hey, if we can feel this way about Batman or Superman or Apache Chief, why can’t we feel this way about the Joker?
Come see Arthur for an hour or two
A man who in darkness would stew
While the hero lacked laugh
The film indulged gaffe:
Batman seekers, the joke is on you
Rated R, 122 Minutes
Director: Todd Phillips
Writer: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Genre: Art film disguised as blockbuster
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Misunderstood psychopaths
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People hoping to see Batman
* I know darn well the difference between DC and Marvel; I’m simply choosing not to care.
