Come, fall in love with him...

Rating: 10/10 (11 October 2019)

"I just hope my death makes more sense than my life," the tormented Joker, Arthur Fleck confesses in his old journal. This psychological thriller, directed by Todd Phillips is based on the popular DC Comics characters, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. The origin of Joker dates back to 1981, the film follows Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who turns to a life of crime and commotion in Gotham City.
This movie got eight minutes standing ovation at Venice International Film Festival at the Premier of the movie, where it won a Golden Lion.
In very few mainstream movies, you fall in love with the negative character. This movie is one such and more so because it shows in great length, why the character turns dark; why he chooses the path he had chosen. Dark is a very carefully crafted word defined by movie makers and use it depending on what kind of audience they want to reach out to. The brutality in this movie is meant to shock you and it does the job immaculately.
Arthur Fleck is a regular guy who is a clown by day and a stand-up comedian at night. But nobody laughs at his comic stuffs other than himself. He has a condition that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times.
In most of the joker movies, character is usually presented with bleached skins and hairs, warped mouth. This adaptation has nothing such rather the city he lives in is the inexorable silo.
Arthur sinks in the apathy of the fellow citizens to him. He is a victim of brutality and torment of fellow citizens of the city. The people around him are so wretched; they would queue to beat him up. Ignored in public, he would like to make people smile around him, whether by taking a gun to a children's hospital or by pestering his gorgeous black neighbour. On the other side, he is psychologically sick and socially ignored guy who would snap his mouth to an unsettling fake smile, or a sudden flip of eyes to look at the camera which would shake you. You would close your eyes in shock and dismay.
His improved self-confidence after the first attack shows in his elegant dance on the street. He finally fights back after the third attack and shoots the three bankers who attacked him inside the train. He admits, "I killed those guys, because they were awful".
After the subway shooting, an eyewitness draws an outline image of Arthur Fleck and there begins a movement. The subjugated people of Gotham rise up against the rich. Fleck became a cult star much to his amazement. The city is inundated by rebels in clown makeup and masks.
His mom, a poor woman writes letter to Thomas Wayne a business tycoon to help her out in their livelihood and somehow Arthur reads one of those letters, learns something very upsetting. He approaches Wayne from where he had to return shamed as usual. Completely flustered, he kills his mother.
His comedy show same night goes badly, as he laughs hysterically and finds difficulty delivering jokes. Talk show host Murray (Robert De Nero) mocks him by showing those clips on his show. He is invited to appear on Murray's show due to unanticipated popularity of that clip. Before the show goes live, Arthur requests Murray to introduce him as Joker with reference to his previous mockery. He walks in to a rousing welcome from the audience but begins telling gloomy jokes and admits of killing those three men in train, and rants about how society discards the oppressed and how he was mocked by Murray. Thereafter, he kills Murray live on television and is detained as riots break out all across Gotham. One of the rioters corners Thomas Wayne, kills him and his wife but leaves alone his son. Rioters also free Arthur Fleck from the police van and he dances to the cheers of the crowd and paints a smile on his face with his own blood when the movie draws to a close.
Arthur Fleck's character isn't actually amusing as the name says, but it's gauche, the kind of fidgety, people shy away from in public because of his inconsistent behaviour. It's easy for the viewers to empathize with the character, his craving to be accepted. When he says he feels unseen or invisible, you can clearly realize why. He's the kind of person people would love to overlook out of apathy or uneasiness.
Joker is deliberately made dreadful, visually, and psychologically. The movie is grimmer and more distressing than other marvel movies. It gives the audience a power to believe from being powerlessness to powerful. It shows him dancing wildly in public, weeping alone by him when he is oppressed. It shows his sufferings, but at the end it has been shown what he went through was necessary to bring him the power and recognition that he deserved.