Joker Goes All In And Delivers As Being A True Cinematic Triumph.

   
      One of the most anticipated movies of the 2019 fall season has arrived (As well as one of the seasons first serious Oscar contenders) with Todd Philips Joker starring Academy Award Winner Joaquin Phoenix, taking on the iconic role of The Joker (Previously played by Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, voiced by Mark Hamill, Heath Ledger in a posthumous Oscar performance, and Jared Leto), and delivering his own interpretation of the character that stands on its own apart from the others. With Joker, expectations were set high with it having to live up to the legacy of the previous interpretations of the character performance wise, while delivering an origin story that does the character justice in the eyes of the audience. For Joaquin Phoenix, the challenge he faced during production was delivering a performance that could stand on its own as a different take on the iconic character, while matching the level of awe that Heath Ledger brought to the screen with 2008's The Dark Knight. For Todd Philips, the task set for him was giving Phoenix direction that would allow him to utilize his method training as an actor to maximum potential, while going in a more artsy and realistic direction with the film. Philips had to deliver an origin story to the audience that can be believed in terms of Joker going from a lonely yet troubled wannabe comedian to becoming the twisted psychopathic and murderous clown, that audiences know him as. The end result is a film that not only meets every expectation placed upon it, but exceeds them while taking the comic book genre in a direction that gives it an art house feel while making the story more personal, haunting, intense, exciting, and raw. Joker is a force of a film that achieves what it sets out to do while showing audiences that the comic book genre can extend further than just popcorn entertainment, but can make one think about the characters as well as what the film is trying to say. With Joker, Joaquin Phoenix goes all in and delivers a killer performance, that stands on its own apart from the work of previous actors playing the role, and is certain to hand him an Oscar nomination this award season with a possible win.

      Joker's story centers around the character of Arthur Fleck with the film showing the disregard that society has towards him as he struggles to achieve a career as being a stand-up comedian while working as a clown on the side to make ends meat. When secrets regarding his past are unearthed, Arthur's world begins to crumble around him pushing him closer to the persona of the Joker as he begins to influence others to wreck havoc on Gotham. Whereas The Dark Knight presented Heath Ledger's Joker as being an absolute figure within the plot of that film with no backstory, Joker takes the bold and risky opportunity to give the character a past and transformation by showing Phoenix's Joker as a regular person, who just wants to do the right thing in the beginning but slowly gets pushed towards the brink of insanity before finally snapping. What Joker does so well is showing the progression of Arthur's character as he descends further into madness with audiences trying to pin point the exact moment his character snaps and hits the point of no return when transforming fully into the Joker. Joker is not only a smart and cleverly written origin story, it tackles themes that are relevant in today's world such as the topic of mental illness with Arthur's characters transformation, class distinctions with poverty stricken citizens of Gotham protesting against the rich, particularly Thomas Wayne's character in the film, abandonment with Fleck's character being rejected by society for the most part and essentially being a loner outside of looking after his mother, child abuse and welfare with devastating revelations revealed later about Fleck, the uncovering of secrets, and ultimately discovering the truth regarding Fleck's childhood. Much like Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Joker tackles serious and mature themes which places the audience in the story, making them question what they would do in that situation or how they would react to a character such as Arthur Fleck taking over society while encouraging violence and chaos. The message that the film leaves the viewer when the credits roll, is one that says both mental illness and desperation can lead to bizarre and crazy acts. Director Todd Philips meets the weight of Joaquin Phoenix's performance head on with a story that's dark, disturbing, heartbreaking, haunting, yet feels relevant and eye-opening with its scary parallels towards today's society and how those with mental illnesses are treated and essentially brushed aside. Joker is a film that succeeds in nearly every aspect of entertaining and thrilling its audience, while crafting a beautiful and breathtaking piece of cinema that has something to say on the topic of mental illness, and exploring what makes someone like Arthur Fleck become someone as twisted and dangerous as the Joker. The amazing thing about how the film is pulled off by both the actors and team behind it, is how it can almost be looked at as a deep psychological thriller rather than a comic book movie, which it only has ties to due to the characters it portrays.

      The key to the films success besides its strong script, stellar direction, and relevant themes is the phenomenal acting performances from its cast with Joaquin Phoenix being a worthy successor to carry the legacy of the Joker from where Heath Ledger left the role (Sorry Jared Leto). Phoenix is the heart and soul of the film as he delivers both a commanding and masterful performance as Fleck, making his transformation into the Joker natural, believable, and chilling. It takes an actor with great discipline, skills, determination, and a fearless tone to them in order to pull off playing the part of Joker and Phoenix meets all those standards while still managing to surprise the audience. Though no one can match the force of nature Heath Ledger brought with his portrayal of Joker, Joaquin takes the role in a different direction that makes it effective in a similar fashion while being great in its own way. Dare one says that he's the second best live-action Joker ever put on film behind Ledger's Joker and ahead of Jack Nicholson's and Jared Leto's. Whereas Joaquin is the show, Robert Deniro shines in his supporting role as Murray Franklin, local Gotham talk show host and comedian Arthur most admires who takes an interest in Fleck's unusual antics and tries to cast a spotlight on him until he oversteps his boundaries. Deniro's casting as the talk show host is perfect and serves as a homage to the role he played in The King Of Comedy, one of the old 70's Martin Scorsese films that Todd Philips drew inspiration from in making of Joker. Francis Conroy shines as Arthur's mom Penny Fleck with her character playing a minimal yet pivotal role in Arthur's transformation. Brett Cullen does well playing Thomas Wayne with his character being more developed in this film compared to previous Batman live-action adaptations. The most interesting thing about the way Thomas Wayne is portrayed in this tale, is how different this version of the character is from the other interpretations which were vague. Whereas the other versions made him out to be saintly and a hard working businessman, who tries to make Gotham a better place, Joker shows him to be a rich and powerful billionaire attempting to ascend to power through people's misery as he markets himself as being the last hope for Gotham. Cullen portrays Thomas Wayne as a right-wing style business tycoon, who feels he knows whats best for Gotham and wants to help make the lower class citizens lives better despite his character appearing to be far removed from the harsh realities that plague the streets of Gotham. This version of Thomas Wayne is more believable as it shows him as being a rich opportunist, whose using people's misery and struggle with poverty to garner more power and stature. His character has an interesting new twist added to the story with how he's connected to Arthur. Zazie Beetz has a small role as the single mother in the same apartment complex as Arthur who shares a mutual attraction to him, and does a good job showing her characters compassion towards Fleck as well as her fear in regards to his character transforming into the Joker. Other small yet notable performances are Shea Whigham as Detective Burke and Bill Camp as Detective Garrity (One can't help but feel their characters are homages to young detectives Commission Gordon and Harvey Bullock from Fox's TV show Gotham). One of the films key elements that was always going to determine whether the film becomes successful or not was its casting choices and with the cast of Joker, everyone is top notch and brings their A game to their roles with Joaquin Pheonix's performance being the heart and soul of the film.

      The films directing and writing by Todd Philips and co-writer Scott Silver, are the strongest works of any film this year and matches the incredible performance of Phoenix as the Joker. With Heath Ledger, his interpretation of The Joker was so strong not just because of his incredible acting skills, but also the masterful direction and scriptwriting he received from Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan. Whereas The Dark Knight played on themes regarding terrorism, anarchy, upsetting the established order, creating chaos, and showing that when pushed, people can do the most unexpected things and ultimately be corrupted, Philips and Silver take the character of Joker and give him an origin story that has something to say about society as a whole as well as exposing the realization that everyone deep down is crazy in their own way with the world not being as normal as it makes itself out to be. The most remarkable achievement about the way the story is presented is how little of a comic book film it feels like as it almost fully crosses genre lines and becomes more of a twisted psychological character-driven piece like American Psycho rather than a comic book film. Joker works as being a dark tale, that can almost pass as a non-comic book film because of the realism that's brought to the screen. What's also shocking is the amount of empathy that audiences have for Arthur as his descent to becoming the Joker is not a pleasant experience. The downfall of Fleck gives audiences a feeling similar to watching Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream, where the film leaves you not only blown away but disturbed that one witnesses a transformation that's traumatic and soul-crushing. One of the films best scenes is a scene involving Arthur visiting Wayne Manor and encountering young Bruce Wayne and Alfred, that moment is brilliant because of the foreshadowing of what's to come while showing that both Batman and Joker's destinies are intertwined, echoing the famous line from The Dark Knight where Heath Ledger's Joker tells Batman "I think you and I are destined to do this forever." The writing and directing of Joker are both remarkable in terms of how they can transport audiences into the mind of the Joker and essentially be placed in his shoes. Audiences are also left questioning what set of events are real and what's an illusion in Fleck's head, drawing another reference to American Psycho in terms of what's reality and what isn't. For the first time on film, a Joker's origin story is fully explored giving audiences the full scope of what makes this character so effective as an antagonist while making them understand and strangely enough, sympathize with his path towards getting there.

      On a technical note, Joker impresses with how little CGI it uses and how its able to stand out as a comic book movie by strictly focusing on its story through amazing acting, directing, and writing. In addition to those making the film so memorable is the cinematography which is stunning and perfect. The films art-set decoration and costume design work brilliantly in terms of giving the story an atmosphere that's bleak and fits the mindset of this character. When watching the movie, one feels that Arthur Fleck's character is truly from the rough side of Gotham, making audiences understand why so many of Gotham's citizens in poverty would react the way they do to Fleck's characters actions (The subway scene for example which echos a similar scene in Jodie Foster's The Brave One) and protest the wealthy that run the city such as Billionaire Thomas Wayne. The films editing makes the story move steadily never feeling like its boring nor moving too slow, it flows just right allowing for Fleck's downfall from being a reasonably decent human being into someone as psychotic as the joker being not only believable but totally convincing. If anything, the audience wishes they had more running time given to them so they can spend more time in this world and get a further development of Joaquin's character and the Gotham he's surrounded by. The make-up for the character is effective with the films score by Hildur Guonadottir leaving a thunderous and commanding presence with the film. The score is powerful in a way that gives the audience chills and often makes them uncomfortable as it adds to the suspense and unpredictability surrounding the character of Arthur, while giving audiences the idea that something bad is about to happen much like Hans Zimmer's score in The Dark Knight. Much has been said about the films violence with reports of people storming out of theaters due to the films graphic content being too excessive to watch. The films violence and gore aspect is worth mentioning as the film does possess moments of sadistic brutality, but it never crosses the line to where a person feels the need to walk out of the theater before the end of the film. There is no other way to dispute that claim other than to suggest its nothing but pure exaggeration. The violence earns the film a hard R rating, but the controversy surrounding the films graphic moments make it sound far worse than whats actually on the screen. The scenes where there are graphic violence are spread out throughout the film and serve to show the shocking nature of Fleck's characters transformation. With the films technical categories being masterfully done with the performances, writing and directing, it further drives home the realization that Joker is not just one of the best movies of the year, but is also proof that today's Cinema can still produce storytelling that's brilliant, masterful, hard-hitting, and further pushes the boundaries of what a comic book movie can be. The film is destined to receive Oscar nominations as well as potential wins for Best Picture, Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Make-up, Best Art-set Decoration, and Best Costume Design.

     There is no other way to put it other than to simply say that Todd Philips and Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is a masterpiece. Not only the best film of 2019 thus far but one of the finest comic book movies ever made that dares to go beyond its genre. Making this film and casting the Joker was always going to be an extremely risky gamble because of the inevitable comparison that whoever playing the part would get in being compared to Heath Ledger's performance. Make no mistake, what Ledger did with his part was amazing and will never be duplicated again, Joaquin Phoenix proves to be the successor that audiences and fans of the Joker have been waiting for to carry on the torch in regards to the Joker's legacy. He never tops Ledger's performance but he isn't far off either from reaching the same level of greatness. The way that Phoenix plays the part is similar to Ledgers in terms of the amount of dedication and passion he puts into the role. The audience can literally feel his sweat and blood being poured into this character with the end being the payoff with Phoenix's performance hitting its peak with Arthur fully being transformed into the Joker. With the exception of The Dark Knight trilogy and Logan, Joker is one of the rare comic book movies that dares to step outside of its genre for the most part and bring both its character and story to a whole new level of storytelling making it feel like a true work of art. The film is a personal journey for audiences from start to finish as they empathize, fear, detest, and ultimately understand the character of Joker more  now than before, because they see with this story that he wasn't always "The Crown Prince Of Crime", he was simply a loner who wanted to make people laugh in the beginning and feel important. The fact that the filmmakers went out of their way to humanize Joker, is a move that pays off in the most satisfying ways. Joker serves as being a disturbing and ultimately haunting morality tale for audiences in regards to showing how a good person can become bad if pushed around enough or if people who suffer from mental illness can do something traumatic if they don't get the support they need. Joker is a rare gem of a movie that's fearless in regards to what it wants to show and sticks to its convictions in delivering its themes and ultimate message to the audience, while showing that there can be other great Joker stories to tell post The Dark Knight era. Those who watch the film can agree that if Ledger was able to see the work that Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Philips are laying out for the character, he would approve and smile at the risks being taken with the payoff being an exceptional character study. Joker is the best film of 2019 hands down thus far, and reminds audiences that comic book films can still maintain the maturity and serious tone of Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy and Logan, while continuing to experiment with further stepping outside of its genre. If one wasn't told that Joker was based off a comic book character, they would never question it because of how realistic and well-executed the film is. This feels like a story that Stanley Kubrick would bring to the big screen had it been made decades prior as the film reeks of his style of filmmaking along with Martin Scorsese, who shares a producing credit on the film. The story feels like a throwback to 70's cinema with parallels to A Clockwork Orange, Death Wish, The King Of Comedy, and Taxi Driver. Joker is a film shows there's still hope for Cinema to be bold and brave in regards to producing raw storytelling, that doesn't rely on CGI and explosions but acting, directing, and storytelling which can still reign tall over everything else. It's a film that's both highly entertaining and masterfully told, but also carries with it a disturbing reflection of our own society and how divided we are in terms of social stature, which if left unchecked, can put us on the path to giving us a real version of Arthur Fleck. Joker is not the film that audiences deserve but its the one that's needed as it stands as being a true cinematic triumph in every sense of the word.

Final Verdict: For Batman fans and fans of Joker, this film is a must see as it's not just a great comic book film, it's an experience that all comic book fans and lovers of film should rightfully endure.