Movie Review: Joker
November 13, 2019
I have been putting off writing this review for quite some time.
The Joker was an amazingly beautiful, heart wrenching, ode to mental illness.
There is nothing that I can say bad about this film. Even if just one of these aspects were as beautifully done as they were it would still be amazing, but the fact that everything was in such a sweet harmony just knocked it out of the park. Honestly, I am still reeling over how incredible this film is and it’s been at least a month.
The story was incredible. There was thought and twists and consideration of the past jokers and the role that they played in shaping The Joker. As the story unfolds, the writers reveal more and more of who he is and how he came to be the way that he is. They show his caring heart and making him less of a villain and more of someone who is broken and is lashing out in his heartache. It is his heart ache that turns him into who he is.
Joaquin Phoenix was incredible. Incredible. He did his research, not only on the character that was written for him, but on all of those who played Joker before him. He matched mannerisms and laughs, he fasted and practiced movements of this new, sickly body, he included all who was before him in his performance and left no room to question if he should be getting an award for this part. While channeling his own feelings, he was able to have longing and desperation in his eyes rather than just in his expressions. The dedication to this role was amazing. Having seen a couple of his previous films, it is pretty easy to see that he has a touch of inner darkness that he is already dealing with and is able to channel into his roles with graceful ease.
The lighting, oh the lighting. Everything about the lighting was spot on. There was lightness and fuzziness when it came to his “carefree” moments – the lighting was directly connected to the Joker. The way that the cameras worked with the lighting and the editors allowed the “still” moments to be just as important as the “full” really made this a symphony of beautifully captured scenes. Moments were woven together so flawlessly it drew the viewer into feeling right alongside Joker throughout his discovery of himself and the pain he had in doing so.
This film was not set up as a “period piece” – or a film that is set in another time period – in that there weren’t obvious signs saying “Welcome home call of ‘72” or a paper flying by that “got stuck on the camera” saying “August 8th 1974.” Still the viewer was transported back in time through the costuming and set design. Wow. The Joker had a pretty standard looking outfit in the beginning, Joaquin enjoys being in very vintage inspired clothing, so it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, but as time went along there were subtle cues that gave it all away. Jokers suit he wore in the last chunk of the film – when he was falling into the Joker role and after he had found out that the moment that he thought was going to change his life for the better turned out to be a spoiling of the man that he had looked up to his whole life – was not only giving away where we were in the timeline, but also showed of the amazing handiwork of the costuming staff. It was bright and colorful and showed his childlike hopefulness for a better world, but paired with the dark and broken mess of make-up which revealed the reality of the situation, was a sour juxtaposition filled with tension. It showed his madness and his longing. He had been desperate for so long and now he was filled with confidence and didn’t mind the fact that he was being stared at, in fact, he rather enjoyed it. Of all time periods, to choose one that would align so beautifully with the previous films – even the first Batman films made – was perfect. The direction was making this film a prequel to every thing Batman.
This touched on mental illness in a way that I don’t feel has really been touched on before. We got to see the whole backstory, and saw that it isn’t a happy ending where all of his brokenness can be swallowed away in a daily pill, but it even went a step further. We were able to see what he did with it. We are able to see the way that he reacted to the news that his life had been a lie and that his memory was protecting him from trauma and the brokenness in government mental healthcare. While we have come a long way in caring for mental illnesses there is still a long way to go but we have come a very long way. The way that he is treated by his therapist is another sign of the time. He is able to smoke while he idly talks to his therapist about needing to up his medication because he isn’t feeling well and she is telling him he isn’t going to be able to get medicine at all because the program is being cut. In addition to this we are able to see his illness take form in the relationship that he created with his beautiful neighbor. There are no giveaways, other than the fact that it would be a little odd that she would see his creepy actions as endearing, that this relationship is anything but what he thinks it is. There are moments when she is in a scene and then “goes to get coffee” and never comes back, and the sudden lack of having her child around, but other than that their relationship seems pretty normal. It isn’t until later on, after everything has blown up in his face, that we are able to see that the whole thing was a farce.
Music plays a really large role in a film. Larger than any one character, the scoring carries the feel of the film on its back. This film killed it. They allowed the music to be its own character and fill the moments that Joaquin was silent and heightened the emotion in moments when discoveries were unfolded.
I could go on and on and on about how well made this film was from the casting to the storyline, from the directing to the editing, from the costuming to the scoring, I adored this film. It was heart-wrenching and bold.
