Joker (2019)
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Joker (2019)
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham
Director of Photography: Lawrence Sher
Music by Hildur Guðnadóttir
Edited by Jeff Groth
Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Directed by Todd Phillips
Rating: 4 out of 10
Joker is such a shallow movie that it has not the slightest idea what is doing or saying. It just knows that it wants to be a cool version of a comic book movie, but ‘grounded’ so it channels everything through Scorsese movies and because it doesn’t know how to find any original idea it mixes the most popular aspects of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy (but literally just copying the actual images of these films, with some The Dark Knight added for modern comic movie flavor). And in the end, it adds something ‘twisty’ because that is ‘cool’ and will surely turn the message of the movie completely harmless.
What is the message of the movie? Well, if there ever was a movie for our times, it’s this one. Finally, a movie for people who feel victimized by society, unhappy with their lives, betrayed, especially by the ones ‘up there’, at the top. It’s for people who are sick and tired of all this bullshit and want something REAL, something that speaks to them and their frustration. These are legitimate concerns by people that have led to a rise in populism, racism, right-wing radicalization, scientific ignorance and pure anger. What does the movie offer for these concerns?
Violent escapism. You know when sometimes you are so frustrated that you want to punch someone? How about a movie that tells you that this is okay, that this will free you, wait, no, even better, it will turn you into a role model! Just pick the right victims, some Wall Street douchebags, some arrogant TV hosts, some slightly overweight jerk who exploits people, and then it’s a-okay to threaten and violently kill them. Just make sure that the violence is shown explicitly and in a coooool way, so that no one can have any doubt that all of this is, you know, cool and fine.
This is all centered around a protagonist who is lost from the start, who has severe mental problems that are never explained. But, well, rough childhood, you don’t need more and it doesn’t matter because the real problem is that people are MEAN and they don’t LAUGH, so feel pity for that poor psychopath and rejoice when he regains some power by killing others. Hooray.
In Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle’s actions are never justified because it is clear that the world he lives in doesn’t know what to do with anything anymore. The movie (ambiguously, so most of its ‘fans’ don’t get it) wants to show how dangerous it is when no one notices someone’s radicalization in such a confused world. The movie goes out of its way not to justify or approve of his violent answers. In The King of Comedy, it is clear that Rupert Pupkin is a tragic figure but someone who cannot be helped and it’s only Jerry Langford’s fault that he is unwilling to show any empathy, so that in the end, both are lost.
In Joker there is none of that. There is only a protagonist who has the most convenient mental condition in movie history that is used for dramatic effect every second scene because, I don’t know if you got this, HE LAUGHS WHEN THINGS ARE TRAGIC. The irony! Ha-ha-ha-haow clever!
People feel they can’t change anything about their lives, that the world sucks and is doomed. Joker tells those people: fuck, yes! It tells them that nothing matters, that there is no hope and that you should do whatever feels right to you. It feeds into the trope of the psychotic white male protagonist that in most movies is used to warn us of the dangers of such behavior but is misunderstood and idolized by its mostly white male audience. Joker draws the conclusion that it should skip the part about the warning and just caters to exactly that audience. It’s a movie that works as an illustrated version of Trump’s inaugural speech. A depressing, irresponsible movie about a hopeless, fucked up world that is guaranteed to make no one feel better about anything except their suffering and might just give some people a couple more bad ideas.
This is more a first impression-rant but I could deep dive into this one to take apart every misguided aspect of it. And I will, if my brain won’t stop thinking about it.
