Joker may be my Movie of the Year

you know after subsisting on a steady diet of cinematic crap for the past several weeks I've been starting to feel the pace recently there's a heaviness in my soul and despair in my heart and trust me you don't want to know what's in my liver the point is I've been looking for an antidote to this entertainment poison something that I could enjoy straight up without reservation or criticism a movie to help restore my faith that there are still talented writers and directors out there producing films that are creative compelling and artistically uncorrupted by divisive politics are cynical money-making executives and as it happens I found one last night in Joker and I'm not gonna [ __ ] around with this review I'm just gonna jump straight into it Joker is quite simply a fantastic piece of cinema a brilliantly written masterfully shot expertly acted and perfectly crafted movie that had me gripped from the opening scene until the final epic conclusion a movie that had me buzzin as I left the cinema knowing I just watched something truly remarkable no I really don't want to spoil this movie for anyone so if you don't want to know any plot details then skip to this timecode for my analysis and closing remarks otherwise pour yourself a shot and let's get into this so Joker kicks up in Gotham City in 1981 it's the city on the brink of collapse jobs and money are scarce and crime and unemployment are through the roof the citizens are growing increasingly angry and disenchanted with their lives and the people who are supposed to be running their city for them that's when were introduced to Arthur Fleck a mentally disturbed man whose condition causes involuntary laughter when he's stressed out or unhappy or tharixer a living as a party clown struggles to look after his elderly mother and harbors the vague goal of becoming a stand-up comedian one day just like his idol Murray Franklin who presents the popular nightly talk show on his way back to his apartment one night Arthur has a brief encounter with his neighbor Sophie but things starts to go wrong for Arthur when he gets mugged and beaten by some street thugs one day prompting one of his workmates to give him a gun in case it happens again when he accidentally drops it during a children's performance he loses his job he also learns from his disinterested social worker that the city's cutting back on welfare spending meaning he won't get any further support or medication to keep his psychosis under control he's on his way home on the subway one night when his condition attracts a group of drunken and belligerent Wayne Enterprises employees when they start beating up on him he shits them in self-defense and flees the scene but the reports of a murderer killing three rich men while dressed as a clown proves to be the spark that ignites the powder keg of Gotham City the angry and disenfranchised citizens have finally found the target for their frustrations and it sparks a protest movement against the rich and privileged upper classes especially Thomas Wayne the millionaire industrialist who's planning to run for mayor invigorated by his achievement Arthur strikes up a relationship with Sophie and crisis for a stand-up comedy gig but his uncontrollable laughter cripples him on stage and the whole thing ends up as a failure no it's around this time that he intercepts a letter from his mother to Thomas Wayne revealing that he's actually Wayne's illegitimate son Arthur's blown away by the realization that he isn't just a hopeless nobody he was born into something better and he becomes obsessed with making contact with his real father he manages to sneak into a private function one night and approach his way in with this information only for him to fly out denier and claim that his mother was delusional and that she adopted him as a baby Arthur refuses to believe this so he digs out her medical records and he learns the truth his mother was mentally ill and abusive towards him as a child and the combination of mental and physical trauma caused him to grow up to be psychologically damaged the news that he really was an unwanted neglected and ultimately meaningless child shatters what's left of Arthur's fragile sanity and holy [ __ ] this scene was absolutely devastating to watch no this is you break a character with a revelation about their lineage that totally changes their carefully constructed perception of themselves knocking them down to rock bottom take note of this movie my simple-minded round-headed friend as he grows more and more detached from reality Arthur visits his mother in hospital and smothers her to death with a pillow then murders a former coworker who comes to visit him he wanders into Sophie's apartment in a daze that night and we learned that his relationship with her was completely Tyler Durden he imagined the whole thing desperate to believe that someone in this world might actually care for him but his field stands up comedy routine has found an unexpected audience a clip of him laughing uncontrollably on stage has made its way to his hero Murray Franklin who mockingly shows it on his TV show the clip proves to be a big hit and it results in Arthur being invited to appear in person on the show he agrees to do it on one condition that Franklin introduces him by the name Joker as the civil unrest in Gotham reaches boiling point Arthur makes his appearance on the show where he admits to killing the three rich [ __ ] on the subway and bitterly rails against society for ignoring him then he takes out his gun and shoots Franklin in the [ __ ] head live on TV his actions causes the growing unrest to explode into riots all across the city resulting in the death of Thomas Wayne and his wife in front of their son as they try to flee the chaos and as Arthur's being driven to the nearest police station the car gets rammed off the road by mass protesters and Arthur gets lifted from the wreckage held up with reverence like a God realizing he's finally found the acceptance and voice he'd always wanted Arthur dances and celebrates in the middle of the destruction while the rioters cheer him on and that's it that's basically the plot of Joker although to be honest I can't begin to do it justice with simple words but I'm gonna do my best to explain why this movie is so damn good first and foremost it's an expertly crafted character driven drama about a man's descent into madness and violent revenge against the world that ignored him his whole life the pacing the dialogue the soundtrack and the cinematography are all spot-on perfectly capturing the feel of a city in decay and decline it's an understated kind of film that doesn't have even a hint of CGI nonsense to get in the way a movie that's anchored firmly on its main character his journey and the actor who plays him speaking of which the performance by Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur is quite simply phenomenal I couldn't take my eyes off this guy all throughout the movie I mean clearly he's lost a ton awake for the role and it works not just in his gaunt face and his weirdly misshapen body but his mannerisms his movements his whole being never have a seen an actor able to play so many facets of a character simultaneously the way he's able to go from vulnerable and pathetic to devastated an emotional to murderous and psychotic in the same scene almost defies belief for anyone who hasn't seen it yet pay particular attention to his eyes during these moments he doesn't just change the look in them he changes the very essence of what's behind them and he brings all of it to the surface just like snapping his fingers the sadness the loneliness the innocence the frustration the rage and the vengeance is all right there for you to see Arthur is a character who changes constantly in this movie not just his behavior in his mood but his understanding of who he is and where he comes from the movie constantly pulls the rug out from under you forcing you to re-examine who and what this man is how he sees the world and how other people view him but even at his darkest and most maniacal there's a core of pain and sadness in him when he rants and raves about her societies treat him he's not some calculating psychopath relish in every moment of this he's an angry and wounded soul lash you know a world he doesn't understand and which doesn't understand him speaking of not understanding Joker this is a movie that provokes strong reactions amongst the movie critic community seems like everyone wants to slap a label of some kind on it so they can either denigrate it for promoting dangerous ideas that threaten their worldview or elevate it for aligning with their political beliefs the good news though is that most of those people are clueless and increasingly irrelevant morons who care more about their own ideology than making an honest assessment of movies but don't worry the drinker is here to cut through the [ __ ] and tell you the real deal about Joker know a lot of people who don't really understand yorker horror movies in general have claimed that this film glorifies in sells and inspires them to hit back at the world for mocking them this was interesting to me because I had no [ __ ] idea what an in sell was so I had to look it up but then I did and it made me laugh because it's just another example of professional activists oh sorry movie critics trying to graph 20:19 politics onto a film they can't or won't understand the truth is that being an in cell has almost nothing to do with Arthur's story he fantasizes occasionally about having a relationship with his attractive neighbour but there's not much of a sexual element to this delusion Oh Arthur really wants is genuine human contact love companionship acceptance and happiness the things that have been denied to him his entire life as a result he's a desperately sad and lonely man that's been pushed to the very bottom of the heap by a society that doesn't give a [ __ ] about him Joker is a movie that dares to suggest that straight white men can also be oppressed marginalized and forgotten just like everyone else so it's no surprise that today's activists oh sorry again movie critics have reacted so strongly to it we can't have those pesky white men still in any of those precious victim points can we the flipside of this perspective is the people who claim the movie advances left-wing message because the central struggle is one of class warfare and privilege it's the story of the poor marginalized and exploited masses rising up in violent rebellion against their evil capitalist overlords again a flawed an oversimplified assessment of Joker because neither side of this conflict is depicted as morally right or justified by the movie the wannabe revolutionaries who are so eager to flock to Arthur's cause are all portrayed as violent angry murderous thugs who use their cause as an excuse to spread destruction and chaos they're not interested in overthrowing the corrupt system to create a better and fairer one in its place there's simply bad people who hide their Envy resentment and bigotry behind the facade of a righteous cause kind of like real life then eh likewise the rich and powerful people of Gotham are depicted as arrogant dismissive and detached from reality Thomas Wayne for example uses the growing civil unrest as a springboard to launch his political career but the movies ambiguous about what true motives actually are maybe he's doing it for his own personal ambition or maybe he really wants to help the citizens of Gotham we never find out Murray Franklin the successful talk show host is equally undefined he mocks Arthur's failed stand-up routine and milks the embarrassment for cheap laughs on his TV show but when he deals with him face to face he's friendly respectful and accommodating maybe he is just a rich celebrity who couldn't give a [ __ ] about the common man or maybe he's doing what he can to bring a bit of humor and entertainment into an otherwise bleak in grim worlds the movie makes no judgment about him either way both of these men are viewed from the outside from Arthur's point of view he has no deeper understanding of their drives personalities their motivations and so neither do we and I guess that's the real tick away here this is a story about people feel and so understand each other about failing to see the other person's point of view and how that lack of understanding can so easily turn to anger resentment and vengeance this has never made clearer than during his final speech on TV where Arthur rages against the world filled with ugliness hatred and injustice a world where people see only their own person effective and angrily dismiss anything or anyone that contradicts it again kind of like real life I like her the movies not afraid to take shots at the grandstanding preachy moralistic [ __ ] who see it as their right and responsibility to police what everyone else should consider funny the directors made no secret of the fact that he moved away from comedy because everyone gets offended by everything nowadays and the end result is that comedians aren't allowed to actually be funny anymore and all I can say to that is rock the [ __ ] on sir ultimately then Joker isn't a movie about any specific political ideology and I think it's a pretty damning indictment of our society that this is how we're so desperate to frame it the truth is it's bigger than that it's smarter than that it's more fundamental than that Joker is a movie that transcends politics it's a story about human nature a movie that speaks to our deepest fears and insecurities about the world and about ourselves and if there's a message to be taken from this movie as the perhaps we ought to deal a little more kindly with each other not hating those who started out with more than us or belittling those who ended up with less not mocking people who don't fit in or demonizing those who do and for a movie made in 2019 thus not a bad sentiment in my book anyway that's all I have for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,696,795

Keywords: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker, DC, Batman, Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne, Arthur Fleck, Gotham City, Robert Deniro, Joacquin Phoenix

Id: viQXE1QMfVg

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 06 2019