Joker is lifting the Rug and Looking Underneath

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2019)

Joker is a character study, it is how a society can create a villain and later ridicule them for turning into one.
It starts with long shots of the protagonist laughing uncontrollably while his shrink watches on with an insensitive gaze. His constant restless legs and his laugh invoked by a medical condition along with his attempts to control it delivers an allegory to his hard attempts to not give in to the madness that is building up inside him. The idea of how death could bring more meaning than life scribbled in his book also gives another glimpse of how tired is he fighting every day with the piling up dirt. As much as the protagonist tries to do good, his actions are discouraged consistently: whether its the occupational stress and politics, public in general on the sidewalk or the bus.

His lonely walks across the neighborhood especially the long stretch of stairs that he goes up towards his building shows the efforts he puts to stay the good man his mamma always wanted.
He becomes the sponge to the society's bullying crowd, until the scene where in his utter desperation of losing the job under an unfair situation he shoots few folks in the train. This does confuse and petrify him when he is out in the station but as he closes the door and comes in touch with his inner self, his feet naturally begin to move to match the tune of evil calling out to him for so long. And comes a dance, the dance of liberation, the dance of feeling himself, so truly.
The madness inside, keeps reaching out to the surface as the shrink prescribed pills are stopped as well. His delusions start going out of control. The more he kills, the better he feels and when he finally lets himself fall into the madness, we can see him going down the stairs wearing the suit all decked up for a talk show with a rejuvenated confidence and energy.

Towards the final scenes, Joker licks his own blood and draws a smile on his face, seemingly enjoying the taste of his blood and also being acknowledged newly hailed king of anarchy. Or did he? The film is viewed through the unreliable eyes of Joker, who may have imagined the entire resurrection while being in Arkham Asylum, but it is all left open to the audience to interpret and let the imaginations run wild.
The film is a metamorphosis of the character from the crouched-bound by the world of unfairness and appearances to the man who lets his monster free, a monster that was born and grew on the backfires of the society.
The film carries a daunting background score created mostly on a cello and other string based instruments. Understandably, music is directed by Hildur Guðnadóttir (Chernobyl) who herself is a cello player. It is a refreshing shift from the arresting music of Hans Zimmer we are accustomed to in the The Dark Knight universe.
The scenes are artistic and well shot. There are many scenes with flickering lights, symbolizing the disturbance in the psyche of the protagonist. Gotham is presented as a city where the rich-poor gap is widening, there is an underground revolution in the making with chaotic graffiti all over the subway and city walls. The frustrated poor and the underprivileged exploited by the rich, protests and search for a face and a leader for their movement. With garbage lying scattered, the disorganization of the city is very visible.
Joaquin has been flawless and brilliant in his portrayal of Joker. The fluid dance, his wide-stepped run or the trademark laugh, all stay with you long after the film is over.
Joker is not just a comic film made to entertain, it is a thesis on the society how the lack of a simple virtue of sympathy can spiral anybody out of control. It's everyone's story who have wanted to scream and let their monsters out. It is very easily my favorite of the year and would likely stay so when the year ends. As our very own Thanos (Josh Brolin) puts it, "Joker is simply lifting the rug and looking underneath it. Nothing more, Nothing less."