I have not long come back from watching Joker at the cinema and I think I can safely say it is an absolute corker of a film. The script is stunning. The cinematography is stunning. The production is stunning. The music is stunning. The acting is stunning, no wait, it is better than stunning, it is simply amazing. Up until now, if you asked anyone which iteration of the Joker was their favourite, you’d probably hear the name Heath Ledger quite a lot, and quite rightly so. Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance was always going to be a difficult, nay near-impossible act to follow yet Joaquin Phoenix pulls off a jaw-dropping version of the Joker that is also worthy of an Oscar.
I’m not going to put any spoilers in here as this is a film that you need to see for yourself but I will say this; Phoenix takes us on a journey of the screwed up life that leads Arthur Fleck to become the Joker but the whole film is done in such a way that you don’t feel that you need to sympathise with him, though there are times when you find yourself doing just that, but it is portrayed in an ‘it is what it is’ manner. We all know the Joker is insane and there are no exceptions here. We are treated to insights into how some of this insanity comes about but we never really understand it, perhaps because the Joker is such a complex character that there aren’t any labels that could be applied to his insanity.
Joker is a dark film and could be taken to have political undertones though that never seems to be the intent of the film. There is violence and there are also laugh-out-loud moments though some of the time they feel almost inappropriate. There is little to no [obvious] CGI. This isn’t a big-budget, special effects kind of film, and Phoenix’s weight loss for the film was real. Joker is a gritty, stunning film with an edgy rawness. It is worthy of being billed as one of the best films of all time.
Sources
“Joker (2019) – IMDb.” Www.imdb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv. Accessed 9 Nov. 2019.
