Joker (2019)

I skipped this originally for all the predictable reasons. It's a superhero movie, another more or less dark and gritty Batman movie—actually, better to call this one a Gotham City movie, as Bruce Wayne is barely in it. It is a "standalone," you see, an "Imaginary Story" in the grand old DC tradition. And it sets Joaquin Phoenix, noted gourmand of scenery, free to excessive displays of mental illness. These things did not appeal, and the reviews seemed mostly bad too. But I found one true heart beating for it on youtube (Sarah Hawkinson at the PossessedbyHorror channel, a regular stop) and decided to give it a try. I really don't know director Todd Phillips, who is famous for the Hangover movies and other gross-out teen comedies (Road Trip, Old School), none of which I've seen beyond The Hangover, on which I was meh. Immediately it made Joker look to me like a bid for being taken seriously in today's supersaturated comic book movie environment (compare Logan, which I haven't seen but has a similar marketing vibe). I basically enjoyed Joker, mostly for Phoenix's performance. One of the DC approaches to their movies seems to be "interpretive"—different players get their at-bats with the same character. Marvel does some of that but seems more to be more about buying up every player they can to be specific heroes. Anyway, how many Jokers do I know? Jack Nicholson, Cesar Romero. I have yet to see Jared Leto. Heath Ledger remains King Kong here, but I must say Phoenix makes a decent bid and comes in an easy second with his compulsive laughing disorder bit and a lot of quirks mainlined out of Travis Bickle. The main knock on this movie, and it's a fair one, is how completely derivative it is of Martin Scorsese movies, The King of Comedy most of all. Robert De Niro even kind of reprises Rupert Pupkin as a successful Johnny Carson. Taxi Driver is definitely in here as well. Joker also uses the narrative strategy of Frank Miller's original 1986 Dark Knight graphic novel, where the city is in crisis and self-serious urgent newscasts carry a lot of the exposition. Might as well say American Psycho (novel AND movie) gets its time in Joker too. Plus Juggalos, of course. These lifts arguably show a lot of studied good taste or acumen on the part of Phillips but not very much originality, and in many ways they fight with Phoenix's attempts to craft an original Joker. I get the feeling Phillips and Phoenix may not have been entirely working together. Phoenix carries the threat of Nicolas Cage levels of excess, but he is still an awesome talent and I think the script could have benefited from following his instincts more. But if Joker never entirely gets out of its own way it is never any less than entertaining either, with some neat twists and a lot of artful if extreme violence when the violence parts come. Phoenix makes the Joker haunting by the laughing disorder alone. The story delivers the rest, and it's not bad, if excessively familiar.

See DoestheDogDie report.