BY: Cory Donde
Anyone who knows Batman knows that the Joker is his iconic main antagonist. There have been several films with different interpretations of the demented clown, but Jaoquin Phoenix has set a new precedent on just how dark the character can be. Although the film is technically a DC Comics film, the first three quarters of the film revolve more on the character of Arthur Fleck than the Joker alter ego he ends up adopting. It’s a true showcase of a man who has serious mental disabilities that end up being neglected by Gotham and even ridiculed by its citizens. Gotham is beautifully portrayed as a grimy, dark, crime-ridden city that has not been touched upon much in a realistic sense before. It has a tinge of what a large city with a large, angry lower class would have truly been like in the time the movie takes place in.
The film uses lighting, music, and camera angles to perfectly translate the tone from scene to scene. When there is an intense scene, the music picks up and dirty flourescent lights flicker to signify the escalation of a situation, or the lights may be low and the music nearly silent to convey a sense of dread. The tempo picks up any time that Arthur is running and then slowly calms down, as if the score of the film is catching it’s breath at the same time as the protagonist.
Phoenix’s performance stands out in ways that, if explained, would drift into spoiler territory. To sum it up the way my girlfriend, Jessica, put it, “It was extremely uncomfortable.” Many people who I’ve spoken to about the film said that they felt empathetic for him, but Jessica and I didn’t feel that his misfortune in life and neglect from society justified his ends. This is a character piece of a mentally ill man who’s slow descent into the dark recesses is shown in such a way that the viewer can obviously see Arthur’s actions and transformation are not to be reenacted or seen as a model for what someone in his situation should do, but instead that he truly takes on the mantle of the of the iconic villain.
A forewarning for those on the fence about seeing the film: It is an extremely dark and borderline disturbing film, but it’s such a cinematic masterpiece with a gripping story line to where i suggest seeing the film, as long as you can stomach some grotesque imagery and sit through the scenes that are so uncomfortable that they will make you squirm in your seat. I also warn: The movie is a bit of a slow burn at times, but the payoff is worth the build up.