Joker: Death of Subtlety

Joker (2019) has been surrounded by a lot of controversy regarding its content even before its theatrical release, a flame started by the media while everyone kept pouring fuel in it. Now, in every argument it’s only fair to give an honest chance to all sides but here’s a controversy about something before that something even existed for all to see. You may put your tin foil hats on and say it was all a clever marketing trick and if it was indeed the case, I’d say this was better put together narrative than the one in the film.

Disclaimer : While I mostly still stand by what I wrote here long back, I wrote it as a stream of consciousness immediately after finishing. It was partly in response to the reception it was getting so I might update my perspective on the movie after a rewatch, removed from other contexts.

Joker starts the ever enigmatic Joaquin Phoenix in lead role of Arthur. At the time of writing is he has won the Golden Globe Best Actor award and has been nominated in BAFTA 2020 for Leading Actor trophy. Did he deserve to win? That’s up for debate but I don’t feel it’s any stretch to say his incredible performance carries the movie and made it as enjoyable as it turned out be. Joaquin in interviews has said that he studied the illness the main character supposedly suffered from and tried to emulate the symptoms in his portrayal. While I lack sufficient knowledge in that aspect, the end result we got on screen was a uniquely unnerving laugh that will probably stay with anyone that watches the movie. His performance sells the down on his life delusional character that Arthur is and if the script was good enough, it might even have been realistic.

On a surface level and on technical side of things as far as I could tell, the movie was great. The color palette compliments the tone of the story and is not as bland as other contemporary superhero movies, scene framing are very well done and contrasted well among the 2 half of the story. Music choice I feel was really good and when used fit the mood of the scene. Lacking technical knowledge on these aspects I can’t say much more. Joaquin and Robert De Niro are exceptional as usual and rest of the cast did a decent enough job too, though I did feel the acting of the dwarf actor was a bit off but it’s a very minor complaint.

If you’re expecting a comic book movie that tells an grounded origin for such an iconic larger than life character, then this movie will meet your expectation for the most part. Gotham is fittingly an awful place to live where most people Arthur meets is ready to make is life a little bit worse. Woven into the plot is how the Wayne family gives rise to the Joker and it’s implied how he in turn gives rise to Batman. Given that we as the audience have a rough idea of how the Joker-Batman dynamic comes to be, this origin is all the more fascinating to speculate about what the future will be for this version of the characters.

But the problem arises when you remove the larger context of the Batman mythos and see the movie as a stand alone character study in a supposed realistic setting. The fact that the movie borrows so heavily from classic movies like Taxi Driver and King of Comedy doesn't help its case, you’re gonna draw comparisons regardless of intent. So let’s talk about the movie in that context.

Just as the movie begins we a treated to a scene of some bratty kids harassing Arthur and ultimately kicking while he’s down. After that he tried to make a kid laugh and the mom gets angry. Then he gets blamed for something the kids previously did. He’s constantly looked at as a weirdo for his illness and any time he isn’t getting beat up by the world, it’s either a trick or a delusion. Our lead literally writes in his notebook “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't”. That’s how little subtlety this movies has in dealing with issues.

Superhero movies have always been about inspiring hope and thus in those stories no what trouble, there’s a solution in the end, a happy ending for everyone. Real life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine like that. But it isn’t all doom and gloom like Joker’s world is. In an attempt to be darker and mature, it swings in the other direction and ends up as just as comical exaggeration as it’s superhero counter part. 

It’s not that lack of nuance ends at the world being bleak, it overdoes it’s themes of mental illness without any attempt at exploring it and subverts clever story telling by making sure the audience knows whats happening. I would understand that in a kids movie but not in a R rated one.
Case in point, the movie cleverly keeps the plot detail Arthur’s girlfriend being imaginary at the beginning. If you pay attention, it’s easy to pick up on little hints of something being off. But the reveal throws any subtlety out the window and shows all previous scenes with the girlfriend without her just to make sure you know that it was all his imagination.
Another scene that stuck out to me is the Taxi Driver homage, it feels misplaced. Arthur didn’t have any violent tendency at the beginning, even his 1^st murder was accidental. Thus posing with a gun feels out of character, I would have liked that scene after he gains confidence. Regrettably I have not seen King of Comedy so can’t comment on references from there. 

One defense I’ve heard and think holds some weight is the theory that of the movie being entirely from Joker’s perspective and thus the world being skewed towards bleakness is just his perspective. It makes sense for depressed people to see that world that way and I would like it if that was really the director’s intent but I don’t really feel the movie really commits to it and make it a part of the story telling, something Taxi Driver did. Plus even considering that, number of cruel fates Arthur meets is just too much to be swept under “perspective”.

Before I end the article I wanna give my thoughts on the controversy just cause how ridiculous it is. Media and older generations for the longest time have been blaming emerging form of art like games for violence as if established art can’t incite the same thing. Joker isn’t the 1^st movie to focus on a “villain” and won’t be the last but it’s the 1^st mainstream comic book movie to do that so the backlash makes sense. No person is born evil and giving a reason to their action doesn’t justify the action either. Deranged people will engage in deranged activities no matter what the cause is, and in this case, the outrage is completely manufactured to serve the media.

Overall despite my criticism of Joker, I still enjoyed it quite a bit as a comic book movie. Viewing it as a realistic character study is just putting a microscope on the flaws and I don’t feel that’s the intent of the movie. I’m glad the movie found success and gives me hope we would get more movies of this nature, hopefully those will improve upon this movie’s failings.