2
hours 2 minutes
Starring:
Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro
This
movie belongs to Joaquin Phoenix. No one
else in this film really matters. They
are all characters who just enhance Joaquin Phoenix’s character as Arthur Fleck
and his counterpart, Joker.
I
wasn’t sure where all the hype for this movie came from as I was watching
it. It starts out slow. It shows a crumpled up guy who has nothing
going for him, living with his mom in an apartment and playing a clown for
money. Arthur is that type of person
that you would cross to the other side of the sidewalk because he was just odd
and you wanted nothing to do with him.
But we begin to see glimpses of Joker in-between the layers of
Arthur. We see this man, who is already
lost in society, grab hold of the only thing he can find . . .the manic part of
him. As the film ramps up, it becomes an
insane journey into the depths of Arthurs mind and we begin to see the internal
transformation of Arthur into the bigger than life, Joker.
I’ve
read the write-ups about this movie.
Maybe the writer wanted to show the world of mental illness. Maybe he wanted to make a statement about
society and how we treat each other.
Maybe he wanted to make a film about the lack of help for people who
wander the streets. It could be all that
but it’s also the best film out there about Batman’s nemesis. The story takes place in Gotham City with a
society that is out of control. We see
Thomas Wayne as the mayor of the city.
We are introduced to his son, Bruce.
And we also see his son, Bruce Wayne, watch his parent’s die at the
hands of a clown.
Joaquin
Phoenix stole the show. He is
the Joker. He was a man who
didn’t feel like he was anybody. That
didn’t feel like he belonged. He took
the life of 3 men who was beating him up because he had enough of being
trampled on. We see the Joker emerge
into Arthur and become someone who finally felt like he was someone.
The
Joker lives up to the comics of how we know him so kudos to Joaquin for an
Oscar worthy performance. It was a
superb movie.
