Joker: No One Will Save Us

I just walked out of the theater and am trying to process my feelings about Joker. Mostly, it was disturbing. Way too disturbing. I thought the years of watching Game of Thrones would have inured me to a certain amount of violence, but nope. This movie features some pretty brutal murders that almost made me throw up. That's not a ringing endorsement. 

I will not be watching this movie again. But there were still elements of it that I found breathtaking. Such is the power of the big screen - a movie can literally make you nauseous, but you still come out of the theater humming "Send in the Clowns." Speaking of which, I cannot improve upon Glen Weldon's observations in his NPR review of this movie where he talks about how unlikely the scene is where a group of Wall Street bros start singing Send in the Clowns before they beat up Arthur Fleck (that's the Joker's real name before he takes on his manic persona). That scene was meant to be violent but it just made me giggle, because it's true, those are not the type of men who are well-versed in the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. The movie also ends with Frank Sinatra's version of the song, which I had never heard, and it only disturbed me further, because that song is famously sung by a woman. Sure, Sinatra made it popular, but it is a gorgeous, heart-wrenching song, and the Judi Dench version is the one I love. By choosing Sinatra's version, the movie makes its intentions known. This is a movie concerned with bombast and polish rather than ragged emotion and substance. Sure Sinatra sounds great, but he certainly doesn't capture the emotion or context of that song at all. Likewise, Joker looks great, but boy does it not want to think too deeply about what it's saying.

Joaquin Phoenix's performance is the saving grace of this film. The man has committed himself body and soul to inhabiting this character, and while I wanted to shout, "why have you gone to all this trouble for a comic book movie," I have to give him his due. He is shirtless a fair bit in the film and this seems to be expressly for the purpose of revealing his shrunken form, with his ribs sticking out so alarmingly that I wanted to feed him a burger every time he was on screen. It's not pleasant to look at. And then of course, there's the famous clown makeup. Arthur starts off as an ordinary clown, but the gradual evolution to the Joker look that we all know (and love?) is brilliantly done. His eye makeup is always running, his red lips are always evolving (first with lipstick and greasepaint, then by other more sinister means). And that laugh. He has an uncontrollable laugh due to neurological damage, a sort of Tourette's-like tic that is deeply unnerving and gets him into trouble all the time. It is a high-pitched cackle that trails off like a cat choking on a hairball and it is awful and mesmerizing at the same time. 

There are also clever bits of plot. There were story beats that made me think, "that makes absolutely no sense, why on earth would these characters behave this way," and then it got explained and I felt less icky about it all. But this movie was so clearly written and produced by a bunch of men. The Joker is a villain, and the movie doesn't try to make him out to be a good guy, but it certainly does try to place his actions in the context of, "he's only being heinous to the people who treated him poorly," which doesn't quite fly when he's stabbing people in the eye with scissors. Yeah, that's the bit that made me nauseous, spoiler alert.

Joker is trying very hard to be some kind of artistic, dark take on the superhero genre, but it has veered way off course. The recent SNL parody was a perfect satire, highlighting the self-importance and aggrandisement of this comic book villain. It's a great character but trying to delve into his origins is an exercise in futility because it feels like an attempt to excuse thoroughly inexcusable behavior. Director and co-writer Todd Phillips certainly hasn't done himself any favors lately when he proclaimed comedy was dead and people were too sensitive and woke to appreciate jokes anymore. But I don't think woke people are going to be able to stand this dramatic movie either. In our current day and age, there are so many awful men who are going to watch this film and come away thinking that the Joker is a hero. It is deeply irresponsible and pointless, and while I certainly wasn't bored while watching this movie, all I wanted to do when I came home was to cleanse my soul with A Little Night Music. Send in the clowns, but please take the Joker away.