Escapism

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2019)

When I first learned of an "origin story" for the Joker, I was at most worried because what makes the Joker an endearing comic book super-villain is his lack of a backstory. It added to the mystique of the character. That, and it wasn't too long after the DCEU had shown off their Joker in Jared Leto.
But, the film was actually surprising. This was probably one of my favorite films of this year, even though most of the hype overplayed it. Here, we have Arthur Fleck who was born on the poor streets of Gotham where he takes care of his mother and works as a clown performer, a thankless job. A majority of the film devotes much of its time to seeing the Joker's daily life. Because of his mental illness, he is mistreated by the populace and always looked down upon. Eventually, he would devolve into the Joker, becoming the most dangerous criminal that Gotham City would ever know.
There's no use comparing Joaquin Phoenix's Joker with that of the late Heath Ledger's or even Jack Nicholson's takes on the Clown Prince of Crime as they are all different interpretations. Here, Joaquin Phoenix did a great job at playing a broken man who was continually beaten down by society until he lashed out at his mistreatment. I feel what makes movies like Joker, A Clockwork Orange, and American Psycho insightful to many is the fact that at heart, some would want to be free to do what they want regardless of the consequences. I don't mean as in going out and robbing banks or anything horrifically evil, but these films serve as forms of escapism.
We would want to take sweet vengeance on those that mistreat us or to prove the naysayers wrong, but because of our convictions, we instead resolve this by watching escapist films much like Joker. I wouldn't have thought that perhaps outside of The Killing Joke that a film could make the Joker seem tragic. Phoenix does a good job at portraying the torn down, down on his luck and trying to make ends meet. It gets to the point where once he starts changing you can't help but feel for him. You have grown to love this man for the first acts of the film, that seeing him take that big leap into villainy is heartbreaking. But at the same time, there is some instances where you feel that he is correct in his actions. He's that dynamic of a character, that once he starts on his journey of no return, you are conflicted by it. There is a point where you stop sympathizing with Arthur, but even then, it goes to show how complex of a character he is.
Really, the only flaws I can think of is that the first two arcs are a little slow and less interesting. And Arthur laughing makes sense in the film as it is explained away as a result of the mental illness, but it can kind of get annoying at some points in the film. Aside from that, I can't really think much of any other flaws. An otherwise great film that was a pleasant surprise.