Movie Review: Joker

M and I went to watch Joker yesterday.

– minor spoilers ahead – 

I think many of our generation have long associated Batman’s arch-nemesis with Heath Ledger’s stunning performance and find it difficult to imagine anyone else playing Joker. Joaquin Phoenix definitely had big shoes to fill in taking on this role.And even without the inevitable comparisons, the fine balance between insanity and genius, as M pointed out, makes the role one of the hardest in Hollywood history to play.

Luckily, Phoenix delivered.

His sympathetic portrayal of Arthur Fleek’s spiral from a well-intentioned, awkward member of the disenfranchised into the mass murder the audience is familiar with is relatable, moving, and compelling. It humanises a character we’ve long reduced to a one-dimensional super villain. It is difficult not to feel and root for Arthur by the end of the movie.

On a personal level, being a rather shy introvert who has had my fair share of struggles in social contexts and with depression, I felt like I could also relate to his sense of exclusion, self-loathing, and impotence in the face of institutional discrimination.

The directing was equally brilliant. I like how subtly the set reinforced Arthur’s desolation and powerlessness. For instance, I loved the scene where he slowly makes his way up the long flight of stairs back home after yet another gruelling day at work. Imo, it was a great metaphor for:

(1) the many uphill struggles of the disenfranchised; and
(2) how life just doesn’t give you a break. Even after a brutal day at work, you still have to fight gravity (literally and figuratively). There are still goddamn metaphorical Everests to scale. Life will continue to kick you when you are down, even when you are already on the edge, grasping at straws. I really felt this in my bones watching Phoenix’s slumped trudge up the stairs.

My main critique of the movie is that parts of the dialogue were narratively inconsistent. For most of the movie, Arthur displays little sign of articulateness or coherence of thought. But in the last 10-15 minutes, he delivers an eloquent and lucid monologue which I found rather sudden and out-of-character. Think the build up to that climax could have been better thought out by the writers and director.

Also, I think the link between the metro triple murders and the riots should have been better fleshed out. Seems quite incredible that the public would root for a mass murderer without more facts (e.g. explicit knowledge that the 3 victims were aholes).

Overall though, Joker ranks amongst the best new releases (if not the best) I’ve caught this year. I mean Ad Astra was ridiculously overrated, and Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You sadly did not meet the high expectations set by Kimi No Na Wa imo.

***

I just saw my friend’s ig story that she’s on the fence about watching Joker because she read reviews that the movie stigmatises mental illness by suggesting a causal link between Arthur’s mental illness and his descent into violence.

That didn’t occur to me at all actually.

In fact, I feel like the treatment of Arthur’s mental illness was very nuanced and sympathetic. While his mental illness was definitely a contributing factor, I think the movie makes clear that the direct chain of causation between that and his eventual violence was broken by institutional discrimination, domestic abuse, and even the ubiquitous callousness of the everyday man. If anything, the movie is a discourse on how complete and utter disenfranchisement can cause an otherwise harmless (and in fact, kind and sweet?) man to snap.

For instance, the director was careful to include scenes like him making faces to amuse a child on the bus, or him caring for his sickly mother. Even then, he was already suffering from mental illness, clearly signalling that the mentally ill can still be functional, kind, and incredibly sweet. It was only after blow upon blow of misfortune, injustice, and abuse that he finally snapped.

I definitely didn’t come out of the cinema thinking, wow mentally ill people are time bombs for psychopathy. All I felt was sympathy, and perhaps even guilt for any subconscious discrimination I might have shown before. So I really don’t relate to the viewpoint that the movie stigmatises mental illness.None of my friends has watched the movie yet though and I’m very interested in hearing from regular viewers (rather than movie critics). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the movie stigmatises mental illness? I’d love to hear them.