Joaquin Phoenix makes something out of basically nothing

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2019)

Every few months we get a film that causes a flurry of discussion that goes beyond what happens onscreen. Joker is one such example, people in equal measure praising the film for its boldness or artistic flair and deriding it for its supposed shallow cynicism and familiarity; that's all without going into the social responsibility of releasing a comic-book movie this darkly realistic in its violence. I find all these discussions enriching and even convincing on different levels, except for one: dismissing it as derivative.
Phoenix as Joker essentially gives us an autobiography of his pre-crime lifestyle in expectedly unreliable fashion. What's to be believed about his own perception of his origins? That's never made super clear. What is clear is that Phoenix commands the camera's attention. At over 2 hours, the film gets a little too precious about each moment; plenty of demented laughing scenes and unnecessary expositing could've hit the cutting-room floor and we'd lose nothing. And in a better world, we'd get a proper Batman film with this Joker wreaking his particular form of havoc on the Dark Knight. Still, Phoenix holds rapt attention, giving us one of the darkest cinematic outings in years.
But not only do I think the film is much too upsettingly effective and technically impressive to be written off, but I think director Phillips and star Phoenix are wearing their influences so firmly on their purple-suited-sleeves, calling it derivative is like calling Coke Zero derivative; that's partially the point. Sure, it's a pale homage to much better films (Scorsese comparisons are fully warranted), but maybe its refreshing brashness and wider reach to modern audiences will send people to the more soulful 70s and 80s films of its ilk.