Joker (2019)
- Movies With Morty
- Oct 4, 2019
- 4 min read
A Harrowing Look Into The Mind Of Arthur Fleck, AKA The Joker.
Joker (2019) tells the harrowing and gritty tale of everyones favourite comic book villian, The Joker, in this standalone orgin story. Written and Directed by Todd Phillips, the story evolves around Arthur Fleck, AKA Joker, and how society breaks down this man until he is pushed to his human limits and breaks and goes on a downward spiral mentally, whilst also triggering a revolution against the rich.
Played by Joaquin Phoenix, Joker (2019) is my favourite film of the entire year to date. It's filled with so much anticipation you don't know what will happen next and when it does, it shocks you to your absolute core and will have your jaw drop to the floor. Phoenix to me is my fave performace to date as Joker and honestly can't see it being topped. He brought his own take on it for sure but for me it was so humanized I kinda felt sorry for the man but also shocked when he does certain actions, this is were the film draws that fine line between sorrow and anger towards a character and its done with absoulte perfection.
The film goes deeper than tell you about Arthur Fleck's life and how he becomes Joker, it gives you a visual representation on how society today has gotten worse and how people can do bad things and hurt the innocent, as well as showing how the rich stay rich adn don't at all care for the poor. Society breaks down Arthur in more than one way, from physical abuse to ridiculing him about wanting to become a comedian, we don't see the effects our actions have on people, so i'm glad this film has touched on this and makes you really think about the times you've laughed at someone for something they enjoy doing and the effects it could/have had on them?.
Another thing I loved about this film was the subject matter of mental health, especially in men. Although Arthur does seek help and talks to a mental health counselor, most men unfortunalty don't seek this help. In this instance however counselling doesn't help Arthur and goes in and out of counselling with his counselor loosing time and patience with him causing him to go more and more insane to the point where he breaks. The film touches on aspects of mental health I never knew exsited to be honest, for example, a mental health condition which makes you uncontrollaby laugh during times of upset or seriousness. I heard a review that depicits mental health badly in this film, I have to disagree with this however as it shows a quite blunt and eye opening look into mental health. As you all know I too suffer with mental health comdictions and I have to say I related to one or two situations that happened to Arthur and anyone who suffers with mental health probably will have the same experience, for example, how you feel like no one understands the way you are feeling, how you just want to hide away from everything and have no contact but this only drives you more insane being alone.
This film has had a lot of critics saying that it's "controversial" with its brutal and violent scenes, I don't think they are entirely right. Yes the scenes that are violent are VERY brutal and the shock factor hit me and I had to put my hand over my mouth at one point so I didn't disturb everyone else veiwing the film with me. I don't think it's controversal, this is just the critics/media adding fire to the flames with articles about how this film will provoke some sort of shooting/violent attack. It's just not necessary to talk about this and bring this topic up.
I predict now that Joaquin Phoenix will be up for an Oscar nomination for his outstanding and phenomial portrayal as Arthur Fleck/Joker. I am scared that the Oscars will snubb him because it's a comic book movie and they haven't got the best track record when it comes to comic book films. I also predict now that Robert De Niro could be up for supporting actor nomination as he was better than I expected him to be in this. De Niro could easily have rocked upto filming and gave a mediocre performace as talk show host Murry Franklin. But instead he gives 110% and I genuinly belived I was watching a talk show in the scenes he was in. Even when the band introduces him to the stage he interacts with them which he didn't need to do but it added to the scene and who he was as a character.
To conclude, Joker (2019) is a masterpeice and the best version of Arthur Flecks life and how he trandsends into the Joker. If you love the movie you'll love it. But if you hate it you will ultimately hate it, there's no inbetween with this movie, it's very much like marmite. If you understand the angle they are going for and not for the action then you'll find this a solid and well paced orgin story on this historic comic book villain.
Joker (2019) is in cinemas now worldwide and I urge you to give it a try.
Rating- 5/5
Article Written By- Nathan Mort
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