First Impressions: One to Think About

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2019)

"Knock knock..."
Joker is about Arthur Fleck, he's a disturbed and formerly hospitalized clown in Gotham City who lives with his sick mother he takes care of. He also has aspirations of being a stand up comic and is a big fan of the Murray Franklin Show, Gotham's big TV late night talk show and after a video of Arthur's bizarre stand up act gets shown on the show... he's invited to be appear on the show for an interview.
So I JUST saw this movie....
And... it's all still flushing around in my head so I'm having a hard time writing a proper review for it. I keep starting to write and then I start over and so on... so I wouldn't call this a review, more "first impressions".
Because there's a lot to get into with this movie and there's things to discuss.
I got home from Avengers: Endgame and knew exactly what I thought about it.
Joker... I don't know, I need some time and maybe even to see it again. Maybe in IMAX which I can't BELIEVE Warner Bros put the time and effort into making an IMAX version of THIS movie...
But... I liked it... might have even loved it.... but it's not perfect. It's not the R-rated Joker movie of my dreams.... which would kinda just be The Dark Knight but with blood. Like I already GOT my perfect Batman AND Joker movie in 2008 so anything after that is a nice bonus.
There's nothing in it I disliked but... it never hit heights I would have hit if I was given the keys to the Gotham City kingdom. For one thing, it's a shockingly small movie, hence my slack-jawed reaction to finding out that right now people are watching this in IMAX.
It's a psychological thriller, it's not a horror movie or a crime drama. It's a drama about an insane person.
The movie it reminded me of the most wasn't even the Scorsese movies Todd Phillips says he was inspired by but One Hour Photo. This is a 2 hour movie where the only guy we're with is a complete psychopath.
There's no hero in this movie. There's no relief, there's nobody trying to stop the Joker. So the worse he gets, the more tense the movie gets because we know there's no Batman or Commissioner Gordon coming to the rescue here. So this makes for a pretty unpleasant movie.
Joaquin Phoenix gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Joker and he might even win for this movie. Is he better than Heath Ledger? No.... but it's SUCH a different version of the character it's not even comparable.... which brings me to maybe my main complaint with this movie....
I think.... this movie would be a LOT better.... if it were not called Joker. I think knowing it's The Joker I had so many expectations of where this movie would take this character and that kinda hurt my first viewing.
Maybe on a rewatch that'll go away completely but I kept thinking this movie would play better if you didn't know you were watching a movie about the Batman villain The Joker until the final act. Because I certainly kept expecting a lot more... Joker-y type stuff in this movie and it really doesn't tap into the Joker I'm familiar with.
This isn't a criminal mastermind mixed with a serial killer with a permanent smile, it's not Nicholson's Joker or Ledger's Joker.... it's a whole new thing.
It really is more of a Joker origin story than a Joker movie. Like this entire movie almost feels like the first act of a proper Joker solo movie. I REALLY hope they make a sequel because as much as I enjoyed elements of it I wanted way more.
Lack of Batman is not the issue here at all, by the way. Joaquin Phoenix does more than enough to carry the movie on his own but.... at the end of the day I wanted more of a horror movie, more of a crime movie.
What we GOT was very good..... but I can't help but think it could have been better.
This is not a proper concise review, I might be able to have one in the near future. Because like I said there's loads to get into.
But I'll say I liked what I saw... but I need more time to process it.
I'm definitely VERY curious to hear what others think of Joker.