Joker

🔥 7th Watch | Top 100 | 2019 Ranked When I first started watching movies, I had a phase where in addition to watching a lot of classics and spectacular movies for the first time and gathering my thoughts on them, I would also rewatch a lot of films that I would consider perfect under my eyes just so I watch something I had previously seen before that I knew I would love. Se7en, a lot of Christopher Nolan's films (The Dark Knight especially), 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, and The Princess Bride were films that would rewatch a lot of the time. In addition, Joker was among that group. After I watched The Dark Knight for the first time, I was obsessed with the Joker, and hearing about this Joker, I decided to give it a watch whenever my parents were asleep because they had always been pretty strict about the movies I could watch (my mom prevented me from watching Revenge of the Sith until I was in middle school; she also thought it was rated R). Therefore, I guess I sort of found a little liberty watching something this dark for the first time, which may have sparked a lot of love for it. However, I also just fell in a deep romance with everything about the movie too, and this was consistent among my rewatches. To know my first thoughts, I thought that Joker was a great character study on Arthur Fleck on his road to becoming the Joker, with the climax of the film consisting of some of the most beautiful filmmaking I had ever seen with the prior events in the film being a great lead up to it with moments that made sure I was invested in the plot. In addition, I thought the score was one of the greatest ever produced and I thought Joaquin Phoenix's acting was also perfect, even rivaling Heath Ledger's magnus opus.That was basically how I viewed Joker. However, by around August last year, I stopped rewatching my favorite movies constantly and I took a major break from some of my favorite films. I recently stopped my break with The Dark Knight recently, watching it twice (I watched it a second time because I was underwhelmed by it the first time and on the second time I was properly blown away by the film), and now I have ended my break with Joker, once again watching it. A big reason why I watched these films is to test how well they have held up among their high rankings. My film knowledge and perspective has completely reformed since I had last seen these movies and rewatching them now in 2023 is a way of seeing whether I still believe they deserve to be among my top 10 favorites. Fortunately, for Joker, the answer is a resounding "YES!" Everything I said about Joker earlier on my viewings from 2021 still stand, and I still believe it to be a masterpiece. I could not let my eyes off the screen once, and having to pause the movie to go to the bathroom was probably the most difficult decision I faced that day. Firstly, let's talk about the obvious: Joaquin Phoenix and Hildur were immaculate and propelled this film to greatness. Seeing and hearing their work is an honor with the utmost prestige. They are legendary people in the world of cinema and their brilliance was definitely demonstrated in Joker. This film would not be the same without them. Unfortunately, many people have the idea that without Pheonix or Hildur, Joker is practically nothing: a copy of the King of Comedy and Taxi Driver that fails to live up to the beauty of either of them. Maybe it was because I saw Joker before seeing either of them (I still haven't seen The King of Comedy yet), but I personally liked Joker way more than Taxi Driver. Many people say that Taxi Driver is a much better character study than Joker, but I would personally say that I wasn't intrigued by Travis or his character. All I got out of him was that he broke bad because he saw shitty stuff pertaining about reality such as the young girl (being used for sex? I forgot the exact storyline), the cheating scandal that Travis witnessed, and the robbery at the store. The whole point was that being in a bad environment will take its toll on you; that was the only point in Taxi Driver. I personally find the character study of Arthur Fleck to be a lot more interesting. First of all, on a subconscious level, I was just flat out more intrigued by Joker than Travis. I didn't really care for Travis or feel any emotional input to what his character dealt with. However, I was completely engrossed with Arthur Fleck. As I said, I didn't want to take my eyes off the screen. In addition, I found that the emphasis on being abandoned and being "treated like trash" was a lot more powerful than what was present in Taxi Driver. This isn't meant to be a hate review of Taxi Driver, but these films are so hand in hand that it's hard to separate them. Did the fact that Taxi Driver was very similar to two Scorsese films bother me? Usually, I try to promote creativity with movies rather than promoting copies of movies. However, Joker is an exception because they were able to add something more to Taxi Driver (I haven't seen The King of Comedy yet). The allusions to the Gotham world were amazing and I was just shocked by the level of quality in the film which extends beyond the story. The cinematography was one of my favorite aspects about Joker. The overall aesthetic to the film provided a gloomy depiction of Gotham and its society, encapsulating Fleck's views on the world. In addition, I loved how personal the film felt. The film was practically in Fleck's point of view. When he stuck his arms out at end of his first joke while performing at the stand up comedy show for the first time, a lot of light shined on him, showing his happiness and love. He is enlightened by doing the comedy. However, later at the hospital, we are given the truth and as the camera looks down at Fleck, which symbolizes his lack of power, we see that at that moment where he puts his arms out at the punchline, he messed up and his joke was a complete bust. Instead of seeing it in his own eyes, he saw it in Murray's critical eyes, and he was shown how powerless he really was. He was a loser. The cinematography was spectacular in that one point in the plot, but the cinematography was excellent throughout. Another point where I also loved the cinematography was when Arthur met Bruce. At the end of their confrontation, Authur goes down to his kneels and puts a smile on Bruce's face. This is not only one of the most powerful and significant moments of the film in terms of allusions, but also just in terms of the cinematography itself. At this moment, the camera looks up at Bruce while looking down at the Joker, possibly foreshadowing how the Joker will have the upper hand on Bruce in the future when he becomes Batman. However, the smile that Joker forces on him is also important because it signifies that despite Batman's superiority over the Joker, Joker's presence will be felt and he will not lose without a fight. He will leave a scar on Batman whether physically or emotionally. In fact, one could argue that this scar was actually seen in this film, but I don't want to spoil it for the two people who haven't seen this movie. This paragraph was meant to be dedicated to the brilliance of the cinematography, but everything in the film is so intertwined that it would be impossible for me not to show how it builds the story and creates foreshadowing and more. Joker is an exceptional film. In addition, the visuals were also extraordinary because of the CGI and visual effects. When most people think of computer-generated imaging, most people think of marvel with their complex and completely fantastical worlds with absolutely no resemblance to reality. However, Joker takes a more personal approach. The CGI was used for world building in a way that seemed real and prioritized dirtiness rather than spectacle. The CGI was used to add a lot of trash bags, add spray paint everywhere, and just help create that gloomy Gotham that I mentioned earlier. In my opinion, this worked marvelously, and the CGI was sublime in my opinion. It was a massive contributor to setting the tone for the film. I could go on and on about this movie. I could talk about how Sophie was just a hallucination to try to make himself feel better. She is how he hopes everybody else would treat him, sort of like a dream. It's a very common theory that she isn't real, so I won't go into the specifics, but I do really like that theory a lot and I think that it fits well with how Sophie acts; she definitely doesn't feel natural, and I think that's the whole point. I could talk about the other great performances rather than just Phoenix's. I could talk about the other allusions such as Murray with the Joker smile. I could talk about the other uses of symbols. I could talk about the final 30 minutes of the film being some of the best I have seen in the entirety of cinema. I could talk about the locations and how they were excellently selected. In fact, the only flaw I can understand people having is the weird choice with the sound editing while Joker is dancing down the stairs, but otherwise I would say that the editing is amazing. If you haven't figured it out already, I love Joker. I know there are some who hate Joker on this site. However, Joker is highly rated with users on IMDB (8.4/10), Rotten Tomatoes (88% Audience score), Metacritic (8.9 user score, which is actually really high on that site), and TMDB (82% user score). These are all very good scores, which pains me to see Letterboxd so divided. However, you can't really fully trust Letterboxd rankings either considering Fellowship is the lowest rated LOTR movie on this site, The Godfather: Part II is lower than The Godfather, and The Social Network and Dunkirk are rated criminally low compared to their perfection. However, despite what many say on this platform called Letterboxd, my love for Joker and my feelings of mediocrity for Taxi Driver will not faze me. I have always loved Joker. I still love Joker. I will continue to love Joker. And yes, I have this higher on my Top 100 than Parasite. And that's life! ⬅ Previous Review: Violent Night