Joker

I walked out with a huge smile on my face. Am I a psycho?

I used to spend much time at an inpatient care unit, helping out elderly patients with delirium, dementia or depression. To this day, witnessing mental illness first-hand was the most impactful and profound experience that I’ve ever had in my life. When I watched Joker, I was poignantly reminded of my memories at the hospital, as a young student just starting to grasp the extent of health care in general. But I was also left speechless. I was astonished to see how brutally realistic the movie was with its portrayal of mental illness. It was like reliving my time at the inpatient care unit. Among other movies that I’ve watched, none has taken as big of a risk as Joker to address a very sensitive topic in modern society, and it does so by completely reforming the traditional archetype of a popular villain. Anyone who left the theater feeling like they just watched a disappointing comic book movie completely missed the mark. Joker may just be my pick for movie of the year.

The movie’s theme, as complicated as it can be like my time at the hospital, is simply too much to unpack within a single post: mental illness, empathy, gentrification, social anarchy, class conflict, so on and so forth… However, it is undoubtedly the most important part of the experience. Not only does Joker explore many delicate conditions of society, but it also doesn’t shy away from diving deep into each one of them. So naturally, it’s one hefty movie to watch. Some scenes will make you viscerally uncomfortable, in a much different way from Heath Ledger’s Joker nonchalantly waving his knife at a paranoid woman. But this sort of discomfort from a reality check is not just unique in a film. It’s arguably necessary. And I never thought I would be saying this towards a film about a fictional psychopath: the themes are relevant to our lives and can keep you thinking for days. The greatest difficulty, however, comes in opening our minds and absorbing the meanings rather than being defensive.

Every aspect of the movie including the plot, music, dialogue, conflict, theme, is channeled through the titular character, the Joker, also known as Arthur Fleck. Joaquin Phoenix made it into a gorgeous one-man show, and one that is bombarded with weighty expectations and responsibilities. I echoed my sentiments and “expectations” in a previous post about Phoenix, accepting a seemingly impossible challenge of emulating Heath Ledger, the universally recognized gold standard. Now that I’ve watched Joker with my own two eyes, the question has to be asked: did Joaquin Phoenix live up to the character? But I struggle to give an answer, because this Joker is simply different. He’s no crime boss yet. He’s no full-fledged lunatic yet. He hasn’t donned his striking purple suit yet. We are seeing the character at his earliest infancy and naturally, it would show little to no similarities compared to the traditional representation of the Joker. As an actor, however, Joaquin Phoenix embodied the true essence of the character so well that I cannot come to even dislike his performance. In his style, the Joker is not just Batman’s nemesis. He is a misunderstood human who was lied to his entire life and unfortunate to have a rare mental disorder that instigates hostile reactions from other people.

But this premise of a misunderstood person is not new. So why the hype now? In the past, we witnessed the Joker at the receiving end of Batman’s heroic deeds. We have always known Batman’s disheartening past as an orphan and naturally associated his misfortunes with the archetype of “the good guy”. On the other hand, “the bad guy”, who thwarts social order and opposes the hero is perceived as pure evil with no exceptions. The Joker is the paragon of pure evil in the superhero universe. We believed that monsters like him are born, with their pathology predetermined. But this movie shatters a long-standing conception. The truth is that even the worst monsters can be made, shaped by years of trauma, unresolved through generations. When Joker shows us that the worst of the worsts can mentally break a sanest man on Earth, this is when film’s themes start to reveal as Phoenix’s actions. I still remain utterly impressed and fascinated with this memorable twist on a fan-favourite character. We’ve come to a point today in Hollywood where the Joker symbolizes the common mass, and not the exception.

On the other hand, there seems to be concerns over the social overtone, one that glorifies violence. In the movie, Joker is an anti-hero, but also a “champion of the bourgeoisie” if you will. We may be led to believe that violence is the solution, and in some twisted interpretation, a justification for the transgressions of the oppressed. In this sense, critics who dislike the film’s message are not without grounds, but they also missed the point. I don’t think the filmmakers are daft enough to make a simple, positive correlation between good and violence or to even make something that provokes violent actions. The morals of the film are more obscure, which puts the responsibility of deciphering the message on us, the audience. It’s sort of reverse psychology. The Joker “encourages” violence, but it really does the opposite. The terrible consequences that we see in the movie, you could say, are due to society’s failure to understand the quote-on-quote deviants, while the Joker's hands are clean. The point is that the theme is much more than what you immediately see on the screen. We may be used to the good guys always winning and conforming to the social norms, but in this case, the situation has become more complicated. Still, the spirit of ambiguity appropriately pays tribute to the whole nature of the Joker and his past, which again leaves everything to the viewer’s imagination. It’s almost as if the film was written by the Joker himself.

The beauty behind movies is that you can interpret them in many ways and still be correct. I would never have expected a comic book movie like Joker to represent such statement any better. However, the film production also deserves notice. For example, the eerie dance in the bathroom will forever send chills down my spine. The stairs dance scene, mark my words, will find its place in the top greatest movie scenes of all time. In my opinion, the social commentary would have been ineffective if it weren’t for the excellent cinematic techniques. But fortunately, they complement each other very well. The skills and creativity behind the shots, the sounds and the editing enable the ideas to manifest properly and, of course, add to the surreal experience of watching an ordinary man fall into an abyss. The best kinds of cinematography are the ones that leave you pondering for days. Their beauty is both so visually and audibly inspiring that the abstract ideas are palpable. We get to witness the other side of the story, the story of who we always thought to be incurable from pure evil. Joker, even as a “mediocre comic book film” as some critics may say, have radical significance in modern society, encouraging us to ask ourselves “how can I be better?”. Sometimes, the problems can faced in a mirror. I witnessed creativity at its finest in this decade. I watched cinematography reaching the pinnacle of art. With my share of first-hand experience caring for people like the Joker, I was influenced, inspired, motivated by its ideas. And I think most people who also strive to be better, should take the messages seriously too.

Why doesn't the Joker wear his traditional dark purple suit? 👇👇👇

*All images on this post are legally owned by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, Joint Effort, Bron Creative, Village Roadshow, Pictures.