One of The Darkest Films *EVER* Made; A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2019)

An ultra-dark sociopathological study steeped in deep nihilistic psychology with wildly-violent social commentary, Joker is A Clockwork Orange x Taxi Driver x RFAD with a career performance_by_Phoenix_on_supervillains'_origins._9.8/10.
...
Review: The Joker. 80+ years of chilling sociopathological laughs, psyche-haunting as sadistically as he does The Bat's in devilish chaos untempered by morality, and the ability to bring entire cities to their knees with no superpowers - "just a few bullets and drums of gas." But where does such an icon of evil - the greatest comic book villain of All-Time - come from? What indescribable tragedies or societal/mental-breakdowns could mold a normal citizen into a demonic presence bent solely on carrying out some dark marching order to leave death and destruction everywhere he goes? The Dark Knight had plenty of fun with this concept, spinning the scariest thing about The Joker - the fact he could come from anywhere as a symbol of the volatile darkness and sin lurking just underneath the surface of society - with multiple incongruent origin stories tailor-made to Ledger's next victim's biggest fear (R.I.P. Legend). As did The Killing Joke with a lightly-expositioned tease that still left more than enough gray area/ambiguity in origin. When this film was first announced, I'll admit: I was vehemently against the concept out of agreement with Nolan's analyses on the subject and personification of evil it would take a damn masterpiece, a film so dangerous police would have to guard the premiere, and game-changing descent into madness.. to make work. I'm happy to say, that's what we got.
The stylized violence and portrait of a man broken by society. Phillips was kind of the odd-ball in the mix here; a wildcard that - known best for his savage comedy days of The Hangover - was the farthest thing I'd expect on the radar of Scorsese-like prospects to produce such a deep, dark psychological study that's anything but funny. Yet he impressively puts on the boxing gloves and tackles the un-tackle-able giving one of the most stylized portrayals of violence and darkest films EVER made - reminiscent of (and perhaps even at-level or *passing* All-Time Classics like Taxi Driver and A Clockwork Orange). His controls the slow, hypnotic descennt into madness of an innocent, even-puffballish man you could never possibly imagine could become the Joker into the man of the house with surgical skill and detail - slinging soul-wrenchingly dark tragedies at him with the help of the screenwriters like some messed-up God bent on his demise for our entertainment like the court's jester the character is modeled after. The violence and psyche-breaking macabre painted is absolutely brutal and some of the darkest and most audible gasp-inducing I've *ever* witnessed; we see a man stabbed in the eye then head thrown against the wall repeatedly until his brain's squished to mush while his blood splatters Phoenix's white bare face with that hint of red completing his joker make-up, on screen executions with a revolver, hospital patients suffocated, and child abuse with freaking radiators and beating him all swirling a completely-realistic backstory of where a guy like The Joker could come from. Philips even fits in some fan service amongst all the psychologically and viscerally-heavy sociopathology in Batman references and exact recreation of the finger gun recreation from Taxi Driver and royal blue Dark Knight police car-reversed shot also ending on a Shyamalan-ic twist ending not even breaking comics lore!
Phoenix's performance. Already one of the top actors in the world boasting an illustrious 3x-Oscar nom'd filmography from the visceral You Were Never Really Here to opposite-spectrum Her and The Master, Joaquin Phoenix predictively rises to the ultimate supervillain role in unbelievable fashion. Nicholson said the role "does something to you." Leto did not break character the entire time while filming even sending castmates dead carcasses and prophylactics leading them to question if he was okay, and the All-Time legendary Ledger tragically lost his mind in the role ultimately overdosing in a hotel drug/madness-fueled rage unable to separate from reality any longer: THAT's how powerful this role is. Phoenix tackles it with masterful skill and ballsiness for one of the greatest performances of his career and a life-time take on the villain to end all villains - so visceral down to even miniscule details like physicality, varied going from innocent puffball to sadistic killer by the end of the story, and impressive in laugh alone it demands dissertational exposition - reportedly watching over 250+ hours of an actual medical/psychological condition called sociopathological laughing wherein patients laugh uncontrollably while unable to express other emotions - for that twinge of sorrow that finds immaculate fit in Phoenix's tragic-comedian portrayal. The rest of the performances by its storied cast are phenomenal too, especially Pacino's downright-sadistic talk show host milking victims for cash and fame, Zazie Beets' (not so) love interest, Frances Conroy's Wayne-obsessed mother so cold she questions her own son's dreams with lines like "don't you have to be funny to be a comedian?", and Cullens' evil portrayal of Thomas Wayne.
Intellectually-complex sociopathology study and social commentary on extremely-important topics. The film tackles mental illness, consumerism, "woke"/cancel culture, social media culture, human nature, noir-elements, and multiple philosophical ideologies from nihilism to cynicism.. all in under 2 hours through a comic book/supervillain-lens for one of the most impressive screenplays ever produced. As its tagline alludes to, we are all taught/conditioned from the time we are young minds - silly-putty in society's hands - to put on a happy face and hide our pain/failures while extenuating our accomplishments (real or fake) desperately seeking 5 minutes of fame or the approval of people we barely know to convince us our lives have meaning, whether it's fame in olden days or on social media today. That invisibility feeling mirrored by the effects of bullying for the enjoyment of others is dangerous and breeds violence/criminality of potential Joker-proportions as the film correctly brings to light also playing off the at-tim.. well, often-cruel (self-interested, greedy, etc.) nature of humans picking up right where Taxi Driver left off in harsh sociological analysis. The script is so dastardly in setting up the strings for Joaquin's transition to Joker that it presents us some of the harshest events a human being could endure - also definitely-realistic especially in this time period seemingly devolving in sensitivity/empathy as time goes on - like men of power and influence abandoning/covering up/locking away marital affairs without giving the victims even a dime of their billions, or inviting losers on their talk show just to embarrass them in front of millions as proto-clickbaiting as a showcase highlighting some of the worst, most callous, brutalistic, animalistic points of human nature surprisingly-widespread in society if you sit down and think about it. The mental illness cogitation is also phenomenal and IMPORTANT, playing up the depressed nihilism or even-suicidal thoughts these illnesses can induce with haunting quotes like "I have never been happy for even one minute of my entire life" and "you ask weekly if i've had any bad thoughts - *all I have* are bad thoughts", also hinting at its bludgeoned treatment by a society for just another instance of how cruel the system is rivalling any supervillain playing down serious medical conditions with terminal effects as "fake" or "not a big deal"; "something to suck up"; "get over", etc.
Flaws in Joker are singularly limited to its opening. Irising-in to the dressing room of Phoenix's Arthur and him listening to crime reports while doing his make-up and enacting the cry/forced hands-smile from the posters is a bit premature and abrasive when we have no idea what's happened to make him so sad. The film takes a few minutes to get comfortable and hit its stride, but once it does - it is absolutely glorious. The crying over SJW-isms and controversy surrounding the film is absolutely *ridiculous*: 1) any real critic with even a shred of journalistic integrity can separate a legendary, All-Time great film from a couple of political disagreements (I also didn't see them have problems with in Taxi Driver or A Clockwork Orange as virtually-the-same concept but now a problem due to the times it's fashionable to be constantly-offended, virtue-signal, and be fake-"woke" than do your duty to your field, 2) it's a VILLAIN origin film, what do you possibly expect: lightness and no violence? Also, villains have been humanized for empathy countless times in superhero media from Raimi's 2005 SM2 Doc Ock to Kingpin's family in Into The Spider-Verse mere months ago but not a peep of complaints it sounds like people just hold DC to a 10x-harder/impossible hypocrisy scale, and 3) do white men not deserve any empathy for objectively-tragic things happening in their lives like mother-strokes, child abuse, learning your *entire life and entire parenthood was a lie*, etc.? That is the opposite of "woke" if you ask me and animalistic disregard for human suffering with no compassion or empathy - democracy is founded on the difference and freedom of beliefs and expression it's literally racist and sexist to silence some by definition.
Overall, Joker is one of the darkest films ever made and a masterpiece 2nd only to The Dark Knight for starting the ultra-realist trend in comic book films.An ultra-dark sociopathological study steeped in deep nihilistic psychology &realism with wildly-violent social commentary, Joker is A Clockwork Orange x Taxi Driver x RFAD with a career performance by Joaquin Phoenix on supervillains' origins
Official CLC Score: 9.8/10