Deeply Unsettling

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2019)

It's been a long time since I've been as unsettled by a movie as I was by "Joker." The last one I can think of that comes close was "First Reformed" from last year, another film that taps into some very dark and disturbing feelings about the state of our modern world. But that movie at least offered the possibility of hope if you were willing to interpret it a certain way, whereas "Joker" is about as damn near nihilistic as you can get.
I didn't really even want to see this movie, because I'm sick to death of the whole superhero craze and our country's obsession with it. The Joker is one of the most overexposed of all villains, and I didn't give a rat's ass about his origin story. But the thing is, this is barely a movie about the Batman Joker. It's pretty clear that director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix can barely muster up the energy to tie this story into any greater mythology, and the few meager attempts to do so are the only times during the movie when my brain hit snooze and my attention drifted. The rest of the film is a deeply disturbing character study of a lone man who's so tired of trying to play by the rules of a system that has no place for him that he decides to make his own. I won't call Phoenix a revelation, because we all knew he could act, but holy cow does he do something special in this movie. This is Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" territory we're talking about here, where the word "acting" seems inadequate to describe what's happening on screen.
There's a lot of controversy swirling around "Joker." Is it irresponsible to make a movie that basically gives lonely, angry white men a justification to carry out violent acts? Is the film just an empty, soulless, and cynical attempt to cash in on people's love of Batman and the series' villains? Is the film just ripping off of other, better movies, like "Taxi Driver" and "King of Comedy?" I think people will see what they want to see in "Joker." Some will see a hero figure in Arthur Fleck, and will either love or hate the movie because of it. Some will think the film is deep and profound while others will think it has nothing to say. I personally don't know that the film has anything to say, but the history of movies is full of great films that haven't necessarily "said" anything. "Joker" is a reaction to our very troubled times, and I was able to empathize with the character of Arthur Fleck to a certain point without condoning all of his actions. He's a mentally ill man who wants to get help but doesn't know how, or who's the victim of a system that doesn't care about mentally ill people. Meanwhile, the system is run by a bunch of fat cats who only care about making themselves and their cronies richer, while life for the average American gets harder and harder. Toss in our country's obsession with violence in general and guns in particular, and people like Arthur Fleck will be the inevitable result. I didn't interpret the movie as a rallying cry for incels, and I don't think it glamorized violence at all. Leave it to the "Mission: Impossible" movies (just as one example) to do that, yet no one ever holds movies like that to task. But I do think that more people than not may find someone to relate to in Arthur Fleck, and maybe that's what's so unsettling. Like him, and like Howard Beale, another famous movie character who's fed up with the system, I'm mad as hell, and I don't want to take it anymore. Of course I will, because I'm a rational adult who understands that progressive change moves forward in fits and starts. But wouldn't it feel just a little bit good to say screw it all and burn down the whole mess?
It will be interesting to see how my reactions to "Joker" change over time and after we've passed this specific cultural moment. Who knows, maybe I'll think it's silly and juvenile twenty years from now when I think back on the Best Actor Oscar Joaquin Phoenix is almost certain to win. But right now, there's not a movie I've seen recently that feels more relevant or urgent than this one, and the balls this film has makes everything else currently playing look like a made-for-T.V. movie by comparison.
Grade: A