The Ferocious Joker

THE JOKER: My reaction towards this movie is not at all what I anticipated. I don’t have a way with posh words, yet here are my random thoughts about the movie. Please know that we can disagree with opinions and still be friends & respectful! 😉

THE MOVIE: In a nutshell, this movie is the answer to what do you get when you take a poor, mentally unstable loner and you treat him like trash. Action scenes are scarce, but hey, it’s not a superhero movie. The score, cinematography, and directing are tremendous. The storyline, however, takes a big bash on its face. Arthur Fleck wants revenge against those who’ve been mean to him, but Gotham’s minority interpret him as anti-rich, so it made me wonder whether Bane’s soul was trapped in Joker’s body. I agree that it’s very hard to make supervillain films without glamorizing them. This Joker, though, is original, powerful, but only because of Phoenix, and nothing/nobody else. 🙄

INCEL BANDWAGON: I still don’t understand where this ‘incel manifesto’ sprang up from. I think a bunch of people who actually hadn’t seen the movie jumped on this bandwagon and magnified the notion. Inevitably, it’s always the boldest words that stick out. Incels and R-Wingers were drawing the dark energy from the Joker for a long time, even before Phoenix put on the makeup. Joker is edgy, anarchic, and a perfect example of how easily society can be manipulated with a few viral social media posts. 🤦‍♂️

JOAQUIN PHOENIX: Phoenix puts on a haunting, shocking performance as Joker. But, comparing the ‘Her’ hero (yeah, I liked that one!) to Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson is stupid. Jared Leto was okay I think, but we didn’t get enough screen time to judge him. Every Joker is a different portrayal, and Joaquin has definitely worked his butt off, both physically and mentally. I haven’t seen ‘King of Comedy’ (yet), but I can feel the shades from works like ‘The Clockwork Orange’, ‘The Taxi Driver’, ‘Psycho’, etc. in this feature. One of the striking quotes from the movie is, “The worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t”. This definitely is going on some wallpapers, edgy memes, and going to circulate the web for a very long time. 🥰

VERDICT: To be honest, I don’t find the movie smart enough or Oscar-worthy (Joaquin is, but not the movie). Todd aimed for the Batman’s iconic archenemy’s origins, but what came out of the pot was a mishmash of Scorsese flavors and one heck of a committed performance from Phoenix. Millions of other glorifying reviews might say otherwise, apparently, others see more than I do. It is dark, raw, intense, brutal, and a Joker we’ve never seen. It's more Arthur than the Joker. Finally, I'm so glad it's not part of the DC Extended Universe. My rating is 4/5 for Joaquin, and 2/5 for the movie. 🧐

NOTE: I usually blog in my mother tongue (Tamil | தமிழ்), but I thought I’d write this review post about The Joker in English to preserve the originality of my views and to reach a larger audience.