Best Movie About The Joker Yet

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2020)

Since the Jokers first appeared in the comic book Batman in 1940, the Joker has been a famous super villain character portrayed in many films and comic books throughout the years as the archenemy of Batman. Recently in 2008, Christopher Nolan produced The Dark Night which showed the sinister and evil Joker. In the origin story Joker, The director Todd Phillips took a different route on how the Joker character was conveyed and I must say I was impressed. Phillips created a new film where the Joker became the protagonist of and altered the way fans, like myself, portrayed the Joker character. Philips introduced a fresh and creative perspective of the Joker that made the film both exciting and captivating. As a Batman vs. Joker fan, it was very exciting to see a film strictly focusing on the Joker and its profound message targeting society and mental illnesses. On top of bringing a new perspective, Philips also managed to integrate the perfect amount of nostalgia from previous films that gave a whole new excitement for upcoming movies.
Joker is a drama/thriller that tells the story of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a failed mentaly ill stand up comedian that slowly falls into madness as society continues to treat him poorly. After the last straw, Arthur turns to violence stirring problems in Gotham City.
To be honest, hearing that a movie about the origin of the Joker was a little worrisome, but after watching Joaquin Phoenix's exceptional performance acting as the joker, it truly gave me the chills. In my opinion, I don't think anyone could have done it better than Joaquin Phoenix. Although it may seem Heath Ledger is hard to beat after starring in The Dark Knight, but I still think Phoenix deserves a much bigger applause. In Ledger's defense, The Dark Knight portrayed the Joker as a sinister psychopath that was just truly evil. On the other hand, Joker portrayed him as a mentally ill loner who was just lost. One particular aspect I thought Phoenix did that made the movie mover captivating was when he did the iconic Joker laugh. Throughout the movie, Phoenix's horrific and scary laugh really made it seem like Phoenix transformed himself into the Joker character and made the film much more enjoyable.
Another key strength of the film that I really enjoyed seeing develop throughout the film was how the mood and music transformed throughout the movie. For the first half of the film, the scenes displays darkness and depression through Arthurs constant beat downs. During this first half of the film, Philips protrayes Arthurs life as sort of a living hell in which he feels like he doesn't belong which is one major theme Philips shows. This dark mood sets up the rest of the film perfectly as it changes drastically as the film comes to an intense climax and truly had me sitting on the edge of my seat. After finally figuring out who he is, Arthurs mood changes and so does each scene which began to show the real Joker we know and love. To show this mood and scene shift, Phillips used Arthurs dancing scenes symbolizing the feeling of belonging. Early in the play after Arthur was badly beaten, Arthur danced slowly in a dark bathroom which showed his bad state of mind and severe depression. In contrast, later on in the film Arthur danced again but with a clear shift. This time Arthur was dancing with happiness and freedom because he finally knew who he wanted to be. The music also shifted from a slow sad song to an upbeat rock and roll song that clearly shifted the mood of the fÃ­lm and I thought was a major contribution to the success of the film.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Joker to anyone even if they are too much of a Batman fan. The film didn't have too much action like past films with the Joker, for example The Dark Knight and all those sinister nail biting scenes. It would've been nice seeing a little more violent scenes in the Joker but I think Phillips did a great job integrating more about Arthur's personal life and not about killing people. I felt like with the help of Phoenix's acting and Phillips directing, the film Joker was exhilarating and left me more than satisfied.