Review : Joker (2019)
Ishan Karmakar
Screenplay: Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Lead Cast: Joaquin Phoenix
Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
Duration: 2h 2m
Todd Phillips’s daring new version of the Joker myth
sets a darker tone for the DC universe but doesn’t throw – contrary to what it
seems to do - as much light on (the
problems of) capitalism as it does on other films. Throughout the brilliant
cinematography and too predictable screenplay only Joaquin Phoenix stands out :
with his riveting, vivacious and pristine performance as mentally ill Arthur
Fleck and of his painful transformation into Joker.
The plot is quite simple. Arthur, a professional
clown seeking recognition as a stand-up comedian is faced with mockery for his
laughing disorder, leveled as ‘freak’, brutalized for nothing, fired unfairly
from the job he loves, denied treatment, lied to about his parentage,
traumatized by shocking revelations…and finally made into a criminal
mastermind. The most common origin of this super villain in DC comics is his
accidental contact with toxic chemicals and the resultant disfigurement that drives
him insane. Todd Phillips might have taken this story as a metaphor and makes a
psycho-social version of it where Arthur’s harrowing contact with a disregarding
society creates a villain out of him.
Audio-visually the film is indeed nuanced. Its brilliant mise-en-scene and fitting music produce powerful scenes rich in artistry and signification. But the story, it seems to me, lacks distinction and a certain inexplicability that the character of Joker deserves. The self-explaining screenplay shapes Arthur’s psychological journey to supervillainy in a bit conclusive and straightforward manner, reducing,
to some extent, the brooding obscurity popularly associated with Joker (keeping
in mind Heath Ledger’s iconic portrayal in The Dark Knight). The film
talks more about the ramification of maltreatment, and delves less into
the delusional world of Arthur Fleck; it doesn’t I think “climb into his skin and walk
around with it”(to borrow from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird).
Nevertheless, Joker gives the social-critique
narrative of cinematic classics like Chaplain’s Modern Times or De
Niro’s The Taxi Driver, to both of which it pays a tributary nod, a
nasty turn by subjecting its neurotic main character to social torment. Arthur
has a ‘condition’ (of inadvertent laughter) and, we know from his medical
adviser, was institutionalized to Arkham Asylam. It is difficult if not impossible
to empathise with him, because society stereotypes such characters as menacing
outsider, dangerous misfit, an other (we see Arthur scribbling in his diary: ‘the
worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t’).
Not surprisingly Arthur is lonely and desperate for ‘some warmth’ from people around
him (and maybe from the audience too) but finds only disappointment and an ever-increasing
emptiness. Driven by an acute existential crisis he fantasises himself as what
he wants to be - a successful comedian, a good friend/lover to non-existent sophie-
as somebody whose life is meaningful. Unfortunately for Authur it’s never
realized in Gotham’s greedy, self-centred and godless society. To resolve this
tension between illusion and reality, between the identity he wants and the
(non-)identity society gives him he descends into violence. I find that scene at the end of the film particularly powerful where wounded Fleck, now Joker, amid a crowd of cheering
protesters stands on the bonnet of the car, smiling. This smile is perhaps what
Jean-Luc Nancy called ‘transcendental laugh’. ‘There is nothing comic about
it’, he writes, ‘it is neither nonsense nor irony. This laugh does not laugh at
anything. It laughs at nothing, for nothing. It signifies nothing, without ever
being absurd…Which is not to say that it is unserious or that it is painless.
It is beyond all opposition of serious and non-serious, of pain and pleasure’.
Perhaps this explains why Joker poses such a threat to the established order of
society. He is a liminal figure, an agent of anarchy, certainly much beyond a
criminal.
A transcendental laugh?!
But, as said earlier, this origin story in Todd Phillips’s movie is a
bit clichéd and stereotypical for an iconic character like Joker. Nor is the
movie a full-fledged critique of capitalism; by locating Joker’s origin primarily
within Arthur Fleck’s pathological condition, his inability to cope with
reality and social abuse he receives, the movie, in fact, circumnavigates
graver issues that plague capitalist nations. 
Joaquin Phoenix’s as Joker is both fascinating and terrifying. From flawless switching between laughter and grimace to nonchalant killing of Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), from ballet-like dance to flamboyant rollicking down the stairs to signify Arthur’s self-emancipation, Phoenix gives an Oscar-worthy portrayal of a hapless
man trapped in modern Hell. Over the years modern response to comedy and tragedy
has taken a darker turn. Mel Brooks once said, ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you
fall down an open sewer and die’ (italics mine). This I think informs Joker’s
final realization: “I used to think my life is a tragedy. Now I know it’s a
comedy.’
Joker gives us a powerful message on mental health.
There are plenty of people like Arthur Fleck out there in our society who feel lost, depressed, begging for compassion and encouragement from fellow
human beings. The world is ours and its well being. We must not make another
Joker. We don’t need Batman. We just need us.
* * * * * * * *
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