PJ JONOTHON's Joker Review

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2019)

I'm not a harsh critic, nor am I a huge comic book fan. I don't know of the intrinsic politics between the batman comics and the films, as I only know the basic dynamics between Batman and Joker. I feel that the film has done very well in tying up any loose threads and plausible theories of Joker's origins.
The great thing about this film is that it does not want to definitively label or force Joker's origins into: 'I AM Joker, half brother of Bruce Wayne.' Or 'I am Joker, this IS where I've come from.' The film opens up unconfirmed avenues and at a logical guess, toys with the hardcore fans on what the true reality of Joker's life is to be. Nevertheless, it brings a certain ambiance and concept to Joker's origin, which is the best thing we as viewers can hope for.
This film can also be applauded since it is a standalone film from any comic book adaption franchises, so in essence, this film is simply about a mentally ill man's descent into complete meltdown and chaos.
Praise must be given to Phoenix for opting to portray such an iconic character, and not only for the portrayal, but for attempting to accurately portray the deterioration of mental health. Several blog posts are now being born as to which actor is the best Joker...I believe that this film CANNOT be pushed into this debate.
To my knowledge, no other actor has had to portray the man behind Joker, or his origins for longer than 30 minutes. Therefore, Joaquin Phoenix as Joker has bought about a new debate: which actor is best at portraying Arthur Fleck? Right now, it can only be Phoenix. This is the point that I feel is being missed right now.
As to the ending of the film, Joker in the white room, was the film's events it all reported speech? An hallucination? A fabrication? My opinion, and my only non-obtrusive opinion is that all events had existed except for hallucinations that are made obvious. So, the only speculations that can exist are: is Joker related to Batman? Was Thomas Wayne a crook? Who were Joker's true parents? Yet the most curious art of this scene, is the flashback to Bruce standing with his shot parents... this can only mean that Joker already had a plan of revenge against the Wayne family to even be thinking about the child of Thomas Wayne. Whether or not his adoptive mother had an affair with Thomas or not, it is clear that Joker as a certain amount of resentment, anger towards the Wayne family.
An only criticism I can find is the film's classification here in the UK. Here it is rated a 15, which I feel may be Inappropriate. I'm all for the encouragement of mental health awareness, but the way this film invites the viewer into Joker's mental health could be very impressionable onto a 15/16 year-old viewer who also struggles with mental health. I feel that the film should be an 18 but, Hollywood + money = ignorance.
Overall, this film brings a very positive, curious insight to an iconic villain of Gotham, and we can hope that future films take these curiosities further. Although, given that Joker is a very unstable, unreliable character for truth, it would be shame for any film for comic to give Joker a definitive backstory.