As you know, the multinational media companies are capable of marketing their upcoming products long before it's time for a premiere. The campaign of influence starts to say like that half a year in advance, and it makes it sound like God's gift to humanity is on the way (not just another template French movie). And surprisingly, many colleagues hang out.
Well, now we should not go as far as calling the Joker god send, but it is at least the first time in movie history that a superhero movie actually lives up to the shark.
But this is not a traditional superhero movie in itself. Rather a thriller with the roots in the same context that Batman usually appears, but here with the wounded soul Joker in the center, or Arthur Fleck as he is called before he goes up into his alter ego.
Joker is like a magnificent suggestive happening, which derives power from above all two things: Joaquin Phoenix and the music. We will return to the latter later.
Phoenix is born for this role. He is a counterweight character who is also considered insane in the civilian, which was reinforced by the mock documentary I'm Still Here (2010) where he pretended to jump off filming to become a hip-hop artist. The interview in the Letterman show in conjunction with it, where neither the host nor we in the audience could decide whether Phoenix played a role or was turned on for real, is a modern talk show classic in itself. Here he has also lost 23 kilos, which makes his already tardy and curvy revelation feel even more tormented. The Joker is a sick soul in a sick body.
Like the olives in this dark mixed drink comes the Joker's infamous hyena laugh, which now turns out to have a medical explanation. He suffers from a kind of tourette which, when pressed, causes him to burst into the crazy tannery. And he is often pressed. Of almost everyone in his neighborhood who thinks he's a freak.
That mix of "joy" and sadness, manifested at the same time, is in fact the very basis for good acting, to portray mental friction within a role figure. Sure, it can be done with greater sensitivity but nevertheless this creates a difficult neurotic tension. Few can embrace as many emotions at once, as Joaquin Phoenix does here. Miserable and deadly. Vibrant.
There is also a political line here, which can be said to extrapolate our polarized contemporary. When Arthur kills three financial sharks, he involuntarily becomes a revolutionary. This his first deed lights the gunpowder that the city of Gotham has become under the predatory capitalism regime.
In the end, the Joker is angry about the cold social climate, that everyone is angry and screaming at each other. In other words, he says that empathy is endangered.
Okay, here's the script no more subtle than a Donald Trump tweet, but a welcome addition to the Gotham universe.
Arthur lives with his mother, who in vain tries to get hold of his old employer Thomas Wayne, believing that he, rich as he is, will help her and Arthur get out of poverty. In this part of the story, which explains Arthur's hatred of the Wayne family, we also meet Bruce Wayne / Batman as a kid, long before he puts on the bat costume - a witty scene that merges the two combatants' worlds together.
Although what I said is mainly Joaquin Phoenix's movie, the music comes in second. The soundscape is big, gigantic !, dull, disturbing and intimidating. As Wagner performed in a melting nuclear reactor. It is signed Icelandic Hildur Guðnadóttir (formerly also Chernobyl) who - just like Phoenix - can already make room in the bookshelf for his first Oscar.
The pictures are also not a shame. The patinated city, the shabby dressing room where Arthur works, the harsh shadows. We are in an anachronistic era that mainly breathes 70s. This is not least thanks to a seemingly patented and (relatively) low-resolution 70-millimeter photo with street contact, which together with clear references to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, give a rousing vibe of the second golden age of the American film.
Best of all is that we not only get the Joker's perspective and explanatory background (yes, tangled childhood), he is also allowed to triumph - which is extra nice for anyone who, like the signer, spontaneously always keeps on the villain. In that sense, Arthur Fleck is something as unusual as a true anti-hero. There are many character figures throughout history who have claimed that epithet, but there are few who really got to be anti all the way into the goal.
Director Todd Phillips (formerly best known for the Baksmällan trilogy!) Has said that it should not be a sequel, which sounds healthy, but after the successes in Venice (Joker won the Gold Lion) and especially in the cinemas, the multinational bosses will hardly let The Joker is resting in peace there at Arkham Asylum.
Bonus : The joker name Arthur Fleck is new (previously he was named Jack Napier), which many on the web interpret as a slight tease of Ben Affleck (the initial plus the surname gives: Afleck), and this would be because the actor, who played Batman 2016 , has said he is done with the comic book movies.