Laideez
and zentilmeen, baayz and gayrrlz - there AIN'T NO SPOILERS here. Forever.
Welcome
to Joker. Watched on Oct. 12, 2019.
Directed by Todd Phillips.
Folks,
saw Joker. I mean, really SAW it. A seminal accomplishment in cinema. Recall
Taxi Driver with de Niro and The Dark Knight with Heath Ledger? This one harks
back to both of them and is those two combined, on steroids. Scarier, intense
and an emotional roller coaster. A serious contender with one of the greatest
movies made without a doubt in several categories, most of all for actor,
director, picture and original soundtrack. Sprinkle on screenplay, soundtrack
and cinematography as well. And what a far cry from what you might have thought
so far on Joker. Read on for a dissection.
The story: Arthur
Fleck is struggling to get by in Gotham City, playing different acts (jobs) and
trying to figure out who he is. Then follows a masterful portrayal of the life
of the destitute and the injustices they have to go through in a large city
with less real largesse than what’s in people’s minds. Train rides sitting in
dark and dingy corners, the filth of the ghetto-like apartment complexes
matched equally with charming smiles exchanged between inhabitants. The smiles
are fresh and full of life in the midst of squalor, providing a contrast
between peoples’ outer and inner beings.
In
the midst of all this Arthur has his own dreams of leading a better life. He
does have a mental disorder; but really...does he? We will not get into his
fantasies and dreams but let’s just say he’s like you and me, wishing a better
quality of life for him and his kin. And then disappointment strikes. And
again. And again. In parallel we discover his disorder of laughter for no
reason (or for some reason which we can interpret for ourselves). I can tell
you this laughter is scarier than the Taxi Driver’s; it’s the combination of
camera work, sound, light and acting that creates the scariness. As Fleck
transitions into his Joker self we’re by now living the transformation with him
and wishing for things to get better. And they do, depending on what “better”
means for you.
Arthur’s
experiences, how he responds and becomes Joker is the rest of the story.
My (in)sane musings: I was shocked, surprised, scared and taken aback several times.
Especially that mentally deranged laughter; again, is it truly deranged? In the
process Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips have created one of the scariest,
most enigmatic characters. We also get some history on Arthur Fleck, the
origins of Batman which were woven into the story a bit sneakily in my opinion.
Sneaky but slick. You see why Arthur is who he is and who Bruce is, and you get
why Arthur is Joker. It’s like that story where there cannot be a world without
contrast. The lack of contrasts in behavior and action creates nothing. And in
the creation of Joker we come close to seeing how one can get sidelined by
society, resulting in anarchy of the mind. Joker “doesn’t give a shit” is what
I got out of this.
In a
metaphorical way Joker is an enactment of Arthur’s mind itself. The mind feels
that anarchy is better than the status quo, so let’s make sure we move towards
that state. To do so would require a revolution, a movement, a tour de force of
action considered by many to be criminal acts. But “who gives a shit” in
Gotham? Let’s make them aware that there’s a state beyond what we have, and let’s
take action to move Gotham to that state. Hence Joker, Arthur’s alter ego creates
a whole lot of jokers. Reminds me of the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scripture
which defines “sthitha pragnya” as a state of being where you’re taking action
without worrying about consequences. Might there be a thin thread connecting
these two, separated only by five thousand years?
Different
from Jack Nicholson’s projection of the Joker in Batman, this Joker laughs at
several things around us. Different from Robert de Niro’s Taxi Driver, this
laugh is scarier and to top it, de Niro himself bears witness to this. It’s up
to us to figure out what our Joker’s laughing at. I found my inside self laughing
at a whole lot of things. And think you will too.
I'm a whopping 8.0/10 for Joker. Hahahahahahahahahahaha...(deep breath)...
hahahahahaha...deep breath...deep breath...hahahahahaha...Put on a happy face, will ya?
