Directed by Todd Phillips

Written by Todd Phillips and Scott Silver

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix

It was in the final scenes of Joker that I realized what a sick and depraved picture this is. And it’s not sick because of its portrayal of a sadistic antisocial psychopath, or because of the violence it understands. It’s sick because it doesn’t have anything to say about it all.

But it’s about the Joker! you’ll say. Maybe the most twisted famous villain of all time. Oh really? Then why does Todd Phillips distance it so much from the source material? Creative liberties are expected in any movie, but this is next level. Here he has created a hero’s story out of a twisted human being, and pasted the Joker only in name to sell tickets. Sure, Thomas Wayne plays his part, and so does his son, which the movie painfully has to explain to the audience. Man, even an idiot like me almost instantly figured out that was kid Bruce Wayne. And yet it has to be said aloud. It’s important I mention this.

Todd Phillips made a name for himself with over the top raunchy comedies like Road Trip and The Hangover. And I’m all for directors branching out of their genres and comfort zones. But I think this time around it was a mistake. In defense of the movie’s sympathy towards indefensible behavior he had this to say ,”I literally described to Joaquin at one point in those three months as like, “Look at this as a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film’. It wasn’t, ‘We want to glorify this behavior.’ It was literally like ‘Let’s make a real movie with a real budget and we’ll call it f–ing Joker’. That’s what it was.”

Does this sound like a movie about Batman’s Joker, or does it sound like a trolling effort to be artsy in a time where the market is flooded with superhero efforts? You don’t even have to see the movie to know it’s trolling its audience. And they hired the perfect guy in Joaquin Phoenix, a man who pretended to go crazy for a documentary made by Ben Affleck’s brother. Phoenix has been great before, but he tends to disappear and reemerge in shitty films. Now, he comes back in the spotlight for another trolling effort. But don’t get me wrong, his performance is a great one, because he brought exactly what the role called for.

The problems with Joker arise deep into the story, and they are not with Phoenix. Even Phillip’s direction is okay, and the haunting overbearing score by Hildur Guanadottir is actually so good for it all. But it is in the script (which was co written by Phillips) where Joker fails. There’s just no real story here. I think they were so fascinated with the idea of making a fake superhero movie that they forgot to make a credible one at all. Let me tell you why

The opening promised a deeper film. It’s a slow dolly towards Arthur preparing his makeup. You’ll recall all the trailers showed him forcing smiles with his fingers. The audio is of radio and news reports commenting on the ruin of Gotham. Crime, unemployment, super rats. The seed of hate the rich is planted. He’s a clown, and he flips a cardboard sign outside when he’s harassed by teenagers. They steal his sign, and when he runs after them they beat him brutally in a back alley. The rose by his heart drains water out as he cries in pain. The insanely large JOKER title card flashes.

Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill person. He lives with his mother, his knees shake compulsively at times of unsure nervousness. He chain smokes constantly, and he always laughs. A scene on a bus where he makes faces at a little kid resolves with him handing a card to the mother detailing his condition. The condition you ask? He laughs at times that don’t match his behavior, he can’t stop laughing. You’ll get this real quick

But let’s back up a second. Earlier on a few moments of brilliance. Phillip’s holds patiently on a static shot of Phoenix testing out different neurotic laughs. Believe me, it is a wonder to behold. My guess is this has to be the scene he tested out to win the role for. The laughs are all different, and yet they are all the same. To me, it was as creepy and close to the character he was ever gonna get to Heath Ledger without mimicing.

But then it’s while he is in therapy with his psych, who has him on seven different medications. Then, these conversations are not as interesting as they could or should be. Read Watchmen, read what is said between Rorschach and his psych while he is in jail. Oh sure, from time to time there is a great line uttered, “All I have are negative thoughts”. But it’s all covered in a lackluster movie that doesn’t care to have a message.

But wait. Also around the beginning has Arthur watching talk show host Murray Franklin (deniro) with his mom. He idolizes him, and the movie makes a point to show an imagined fantasy briefly presented as real as Arthur himself makes an appearance in the audience of the show. He’s talked about proudly, his weird persona is applauded. The movie snaps back to reality and shows you for sure it was all in Arthur’s head. Now, this is interesting because that’s the setup for the rest of the film. The film where the POV is from a guy suffering from all kinds of delusional psychosis, just like his mother. And we as the audience must judge what’s real and what isn’t.

Or at least that’s what would have been interesting if the fucking movie didn’t outright tell you. Multiple scenes involving his neighbor culminate with one that directly tells YOU, THE AUDIENCE that the others were not real. And by the end, you know exactly which were played to trick you and which actually happened. And screw you Jimmy Kimmel for bringing Joaquin on your show and saying you couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. Hilarious also how you praised his performance but did not ONCE remark about he quality of the movie itself. Because it isn’t that good.

What an amazing idea, what a great premise for a lead character, WASTED. You could have had so many fucked up scenes leaving the audience guessing, but no, you wanted to give them answers instead. Lame answers.

An important letter by Arthur’s mom Penny is found. “Is this real?” he asks her. Ah yes, the filmmakers trying to be clever. Get it? The line refers to us asking that of each scene. Until by the end we have all the answers and we don’t care anymore.

Phoenix is powerful in this role, and real. Far too real. The climatic scene had me shaking uncomfortably in the theater. I felt sick and awful witnessing a horrific person who can, and has existed in real life, fulfill a made up purpose. “I hope my death makes more cents than my life”.

Is this the reason Arthur Fleck exists? Would it be why the Joker was left alive for so long by Batman? How about Joe Cool, and the always fascinating idea that he was the one who murdered Bruce and Martha. Well you can forget that because the movie make a huge blunder in showing a random person inspired by Arthur do the deed. I cringed so unbelievably hard.

Joker is a movie made by people so desperate to express themselves that they overlook that there has to be a reason to express. Why was this movie even made? None of you can tell me. It’s pointless. This isn’t an origin story, it’s an ugly case study about a man no one wanted to know about. He is Joker only in name. And you may go on and on about Thomas Wayne and the subplot involving him but it’s not enough. This is a fucked up world showing only the worst of humanity, shoved in the 80s and hoping to be relevant in the divided world we live in. And all we are left with is a movie about a white male terrorist who successfully sparks an amoral revolution. And the movie rewards him. It smiles at him. It adores his lonely journey to christ like leadership.

In the end end, Joker is disappointing because it gives us nothing of real value to talk about. It has only a couple of graphic scenes that it looks on with indifference, and sometimes gross approval. There’s only one real gruesome scene, and it had many members of my audience tonight scream, and loudly talk about while it was happening. For all the hype and controversy, Joker offers not much else but nihilism on a subject you can’t be nihilistic about.

And sure, much of the movie is well shot, although it prides itself in slow mo shots of Phoenix stomping down hallways. And obvious references to Taxi Driver and Tod Browning’s Freaks are nice, and can you tell how they’re centering most of their shots? And there’s a dumb callback to Gladiator that just perplexed me. And Phoenix runs like Tom Cruise on roller skates. And just doesn’t stop laughing.

In the time of outrage culture and fake hype, Joker has fooled us all into talking about a movie that isn’t much worth talking about. But what do I know, all the idiot fanboys and critics will talk about everything except the movie itself, because no one talks about the fucking movie itself anymore. And the internet has already praised it, because that’s all they know how to do. Make a movie with Joaquin Phoenix and maybe no one will see it. Make a movie called Joker, and they’ve given it a 10 before it has even started.

I’ll tell you this much. People will remember Joaquin Phoenix, they will not remember Joker.