Cognitive dissonance: It will either make you or break you.

Rating: 9/10 (13 October 2019)

New York, during the latter half of the nineteen seventies and tipping into the nineteen eighties was financially bankrupt; an explosion of destitution, crime, immorality and insanity. This feature, within "Joker", has its parallels within the realm of a New York city that we see here set against an old crumbling fictitious Gotham City, ruined, too, by bankruptcy, crime, immorality and madness. This, unfortunately, is the home of one Arthur Fleck. A man that leaves very little mark on his surroundings and all those he meets. He's a man who supports both himself and his aging, dependent mother through work as a party clown; putting on a happy face. His councillor and many medications say otherwise.
He's a man stoical in his ways. He's a man who travels by bus. He's a man who, still, lives with his mother. Arthur Fleck is a proletariat of a nondescript nature. Arthur Fleck is a victim. Arthur Fleck is both lonely and insane.
Born of frustration, this alienated soul has befallen prey to cruel indifference from a society that leaves only a pinprick of light at the end of this very long, dark tunnel but at the same time, this very same soul, leaves an indelible speck of growing self-pity and grudge bearing resentment toward oneself and for those who reject, pour disdain and derision to those who grasp for the light. Only darkness pursues within the mind of one Arthur Fleck.
The world of Arthur Fleck is perpetuated by an eerie soundtrack throughout this film set against the grating, monotone effect of Ms. Hildur Ingveldar Guðnadóttir's (b.1982) haunting violoncello as too Arthur Fleck's own lifebuoy of classic and contemporary tunes to render or pacify his state of mind. This leading composition of soundtracks' and inner signature tune conjoins beautifully with the visual production of the films landscape. Here we see, hear and feel for this poor, lost soul. It is here, in a Gotham that is unforgiving we see the final phase of this man's inner sanctum finally crumbling around him; his cognitive dissonance hits hard. Extremely hard. Reawakening as all that he sees, hears and feels.
This premise, in part, though very slight, but recognisable, has a parallel to Paddy Chayefsky's (1923-1981) disillusioned, but also reawakened, character "Howard Beale" played by Peter Finch (1916-1977) in the 1976 film "Network", Arthur Fleck, too, is "...I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore...".
This too can coincide with the films reference to Charlie Chaplin's (1889-1977) 1936 feature "Modern Times" by comparing Arthur Fleck to the feckless and bumbling character known as "A Factory worker". No matter how hard he tries, all is in vain.
This context of this feature may run alongside the "The Joker" universe, the universe that is D.C. proper, but this portrayal runs wider here to a degree that "The Joker" as an individual, an arch nemesis of good and more central to the Gotham elite and to be judged by the company that he keeps is unique and separate within his individual universe. Here Arthur Fleck, now "Joker", is a sum of its parts, here he is more than representative. He is everyone. He is symbolic of a society that understands and empathises and experiences' his woes; they too are "...as mad as hell...and not going to take it anymore...".
With the assistance of Messrs Phillips, Silver and Mr. Phoenix alike this character study, and social introspective, of a downward spiral into self-destructiveness is, once more, more than a sum of its parts; It is beautifully shot, the colours and texture that run across the screen, the defining musical personas, the personalities within these back alleys and mean streets, its sociological perspective more than blends atmosphere and tone it catapults the whole hypothesis into a stark and extremely bold cautionary tale of the delicate line of how culture, of how civilisation can seemingly implode but that the last joke just well may be on us all.