Joker (2019)
Put on a happy face.
The world has gone insane. People are buying toilet paper like an episode of Supernatural is their bible. Governments are telling people to get some personal space and chill out. Cats and dogs are getting along. Amidst all the chaos, Netflix pulls the absolute best punchline from my queue to send to me, matching ironically the world’s seeming descent into absurdity. Tonight, we find out if the last laugh truthfully belongs to the Joker.
Look, I’ve said it time and again - I’m practically perpetually burnt out on super hero flicks. The fact they decided to make a Villain-themed movie wasn’t even on my radar. Even when people started to talk about it, I frankly just didn’t care - the interest wasn’t there. Then a bizarre thing happened - it started getting real positive talk for things like acting and thoughtful conversation points. I became slightly interested - not enough to put it at the forefront of the movie-by-mail queue, but to put it in there regardless, feeling that if a movie-going audience that can hate such dumb fun movies like Gods of Egypt or find things to “ruin their childhood” in the newer Star Wars movies there had to be something in this one that I owe myself to watch. And so the day comes, stepping on the foot of the expected rebirth of Clue and instead putting it’s big clown-shoe in the door and saying “knock knock, I’m here!” If you haven’t already figured it out yet from the rambling first paragraph that hasn’t even begun to iterate on anything involving the movie, this one’s gonna be a bit hard for me. See, my forte isn’t commentary - I find the world depressing enough without having to delve into an art form to learn of what someone else thinks of the world - and this thing is basically commentary the movie. Inevitably, I’m going to have to talk about the commentary that’s dripping out of this round-ball of a nose and I don’t necessarily want to - so I’ll try and keep it towards the end so it’s more easily skipped over, despite some of it’s tendrils reaching out to other aspects of the movie.
First off, the plot here isn’t really elaborate on paper. An aspiring comedian whose daytime job as a clown descends into madness in a town that’s suffering it’s own bit of depression and divide. Where things get a bit more elaborate is both the side events that effect the slide, and the repercussions caused by the descent. It’s a melting pot of hot pokers and torches slowly closing in on the powder keg factory so to speak, and everyone knows eventually it’s going to explode. Everyone also knows, because it’s a Batman character, that somehow they will once again shoehorn in the death of the parental unit of Waynes, because god forbid they leave it out of a Batman-related movie for more than ten minutes. It’s actually probably one of the biggest jokes of the movie that it’s in there really - real meta stuff - but I partially kid. Yes, the plot isn’t super elaborate here - but it fittingly plays out far more like a drama, compiling little bits of everyday to snowball things in, giving you plenty of time and space to wonder when the end is, and what form it will take.
Part of why a person is going to want to stick around is the acting. Heck, that’s the main reason I finally gave in to watch the thing after all. Now, I may not be on the band wagon that thinks this is the most incredibly performance since someone got painted like a French girl, or that nobody else could have delivered this performance as good as it was - but it was still well done. There’s a good portion of physicality to the role, as well as a whole lot of stuff that’s gonna leave a person questioning things - looking at you fridge. Still, the man does a darn good job, and if I seem like I’m not giving credit to anyone else in the movie, it’s largely because it doesn’t feel much like anyone else is in the movie. You remember that Birdman movie with the extended long title that ended pretty trippy? It’s kind of like that - this one person is our focus, and outside of that everyone else is just there for the ride. If you get ten or twenty minutes in and absolutely hate the guy for some reason, you’ll probably have yourself quite a bad time. That’s the thing about acting though, it can be good and still not be liked - I thought he did a fine good job, the rest of the acting crew was alright or passable, but nothing really stand out.
Why is it so interesting then, you ask, to watch this movie? This one character goes through a lot, and in a lot of ways there are just avenues of being able to attach to it in some way or another - maybe we don’t all have a condition, or want to make people laugh, or whatever but there is just a general feel to the character and so many of the situations he ends up in that can seem relatable. The actor does a good job conveying this, not just with his ticks like the laugh, but in the many quiet moments of contemplation - be it the dance moves, the posture, the facial expressions. It’s a believable character in a believable world that has problems, and it’s grinding the poor dude down which is something anyone who lives in the work cycle of life can agree to is a bummer. Even still, without really being funny or having a big personality most the time, the movie manages to practically nail every intention it has for conveyance to the viewer. They want him to be creepy, you feel like he’s being creepy. They want him to seem legit happy, he comes off like he’s having a blast. It’s easy to get in the wheelhouse when they have such a clever manual of whats going on.
When wearing a mask…
This being a somewhat modern movie, attire is largely ho-hum. It blends the setting well, and it all looks good, but largely there isn’t going to be a ton of people impressed. Of course, the main thing out of the ordinary is the clown suits and paints, but even those still retain their levels of realism that don’t make them stand out too far from that around it - which in all honesty is probably the point most the time. The setting itself might as well rename Gotham to “depression the city”, because it’s about as doom and gloom feeling as it could be without having Mad Max characters running around in it. If you pick up Joker looking to have a happy good time, you’ll quickly find yourself getting beat up in an alley and wishing you had a tub of ice cream to suck down your frown-hole. That said, it all feels like it’s cohesive and looks good.
Audio plays a big role here, although one of my first real gripes is the balancing. There’s plenty of lines that you feel you need to turn up the volume to hear, only to have your ears blown off when the music kicks in. Usually my setup doesn’t have this problem, so it’s not an everything problem that I’m just calling out on here, although I do always feel I need to leave a little wriggle room just in case it is somehow my end that’s causing such things - you never really know with technology. In saying, I should have followed my normal habit of leaving on subtitles, but alas I did not this time so I did miss some lines - largely nothing I feel was super important for the movie, but it’s something worth pointing out anyways. That music I mentioned is pretty nice and somewhat relevant to the movie however. It’s used in an interesting way of reflecting the characters mood without necessarily matching exactly what’s going on in-scene. In turn, you could say it’s largely like a normal backup scoring to help emote the scenes, but the decision to bring it more to the forefront makes it feel like it emphasizes that much more because of it. It’s not quite as technical feeling as the use of music in something like Baby Driver, but it does feel like it’s a little more thought out then the standard movie format. At times, it can really make a scene - the movie has no problems with not using words if it doesn’t have to.
Now, as mentioned, it’s time for the commentary part. It’s stinking everywhere. Gotham has a big Rich vs Poor problem going on, ripping up the working class who can’t afford the best things and leaving the place overflowing with gunpowder. Depression and instability are huge issues for the characters we are around, and the run-down garbage filled everything surrounding them outside only helps drive it home. Past the riot-in-a-can of the neighborhood, there’s also some distinct opinions on mental health in here - some as blunt as the written on a page “the hardest part of having an illness is people expect you to act like you don’t” or a punchline later on, and at other times it ends up coming up in a much more dark way. That’s the thing about Joker - you would expect a movie about a clown to have some good laughs, but unless you have a real dark sense of humor you won’t find yourself laughing at much outside of the lowest hanging fruit - like walking into a out door because it didn’t open when trying to go in. The thing paints what inevitably becomes the villain as the hero most the time, giving the perspective of the downtrodden and the underdog - without much trying to defend those in a better position in the slightest. It’s a bit one-sided and works for the movie, but I guess I really shouldn’t expect any sort of uplifting spirits in a movie that breaks itself down each time you think it’s hit the bottom. Still, if you can agree with the “people equals crap” philosophy, you’ll probably find yourself agreeing with most of what goes down in this - whether that speaks well of you or not I won’t judge.
…you can forget whats real.
If you are looking for a good time, watch something else. If you are looking for a good drama though, this is in fact a pretty darn good choice. Look, I’m still not a big drama person - this isn’t winning me over any more than any others. It’s good, the main does a good job, and despite me not being as impressed overall as I would have hoped to be given the movie’s accolades, neither am I let down by what I saw. It’s put together well, and the only real issue I had was the balance between words and music - regardless of if it was intentional or a tech issue on my end. Probably worth a watch for the drama fans, but I wouldn’t call it an absolute must-watch for everyone either.