Joker

This pleasantly surprised me, and I think that it’s because of its absurdity and how it reflects the amplification of real-life problems that comic books are all about. Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character was a perfect choice, and I didn’t fully realise this until I saw the pendulum of his emotions swing this way and that, one minute hysterically laughing, the next broken and in tears, the next ruthless and unforgiving. Joker is a larger-than-life character placed into a larger-than-life situation — the cesspool that is Gotham City. perhaps the main problem with this film is that it caters to a pretty specific audience — people who have enough exposure to DC media to have an idea about Gotham and are still open to new interpretations of a character. The whole idea of “comic book accuracy” is murky anyway, since there are already so many iterations of Joker, and I see no reason to push this one away. the cinematography and the score in this film are what particularly surprised me. the shots do such a great job of showing Gotham as the broken city that it is, and I love a Gotham with a personality. i think this film particularly resonates with The Killing Joke’s Joker — “all it takes is one bad day to become like me” — and really drives his point home by pushing him completely over the edge. and whose fault is it but that of the powerful who are supposed to protect the weak? social service funding is cut, and so he can no longer take his medication. he lives in squalid conditions with an adoptive mother who neglected him as a child to the point of allowing her partners to abuse him. when given a gun, when would you fire it, and who at? none other than those who are placing your life at risk! and so when Arthur Fleck, a magnified character in a magnified setting, finds himself with a coworker’s gun, who does he fire it at but those who spit on him for being different? all-in-all, this was a fantastic exploration into Arthur Fleck’s plight and just one interpretation explaining how he became Joker. maybe I’m biased because I do love Joker as a villain in general, but when combined with the acting, the music, the camera work, I think that this is a great movie.