Joker, based on work by Bob Kane, bill Finger and others - Eight out of 10

Joker, based on work by Bob Kane, bill Finger and others

Eight out of 10

There are so many levels to talk about in and about Joker, which seems to be a favorite already for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role – and indeed, Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerizing, spectacular, overwhelming as The Joker aka Arthur Fleck.

On the basic level, this cinephile and some publications have been less than exultant about the complete motion picture – leaving aside the aforementioned rare, ebullient, marvelous and so complex Joaquin Phoenix one man show – and some would be ready to dismiss it altogether as Much Ado About Little – let us not say nothing.

But even if one is tempted to look only at the surface and simplistically say there is not much substance, apart from the troubles of a lunatic that becomes a dangerous killer and the long quest for revenge, an outpouring of violence – hence the R rating – which does not seem all that different from and superior to other movies.

There is also the idea that Joker is not much more than an amalgam made from two Martin Scorsese classics, The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver, and the writer – director Todd Philips (director, producer of The Hangover) accepts the influence, but appears to suggest that ‘it was a specific era of cinema that inspired his take on the classic villain’.

The descent into Hades does not come in a flash, but we expect – we are also aware in advance, from the rating and the tremendous the buzz surrounding the film – that things would go downhill quickly, even if at the start, poor Arthur is a victim.

Actually, on another level – and as mentioned before, there are some different perspectives, angles from which we could look at the saga of Arthur Fleck – we can see the antihero as a victim, given that he discovers (and the audience with him) that he had been abused in childhood and moreover, his mother had been a bystander, with hindsight, it she could be seen as an accomplice, when the boy was subject to violence, physical and psychological.

As a myriad of studies demonstrate, those who have been abused in their tender age, become more than likely to inflict pain and suffering on others, once they become adults – which raises the question of how to look at them, at the issue and more importantly, what to do about it, how to prevent calamities and be reasonable, delicate and cautious…all at the same time

In the opening scenes, the joker is attacked; some teenagers steal a sign he was pushing, in his costume – by the way, the makeup and the look of the main character are extraordinary and help the exuberant, fantastic actor project such a troubling, Haunting Image – and he makes the mistake of chasing after them, only to be kicked and hurt terribly.

Seeing that he is so bruised, Randall, one of the colleagues at the outfit where the antihero works, offers him a gun – one of the parts that seem bizarre (but then, when dealing with a psychopath, all his demeanor must look outré by definition) is the attack on this individual, which seems unmotivated, unless the undersigned has missed so much – and later on, Arthur takes it to a children’s party

The relationship that Arthur has with his mother – up to the moment when he discovers that the past is not what he thought it was – reminds the viewer of the unforgettable, miraculous Rupert Pupkin – who shouted when he was reviewing his comedy act…’it’s impossible, it’s impossible!’- but when the aspiring comedian is recorded trying on his peculiar, tense, scary, strenuous, outlandish laugh and the humor in a hall, it reaches the show of Murray Franklin aka divine Robert De Niro.

The talk show host mocks Arthur and his performance, calling it a Joker, and he would pay dearly for this contempt, later on, when the antihero is invited on the air – which is yet another similarity with Pupkin, who wants to be presented on the show of Jerry Langford aka dark, hostile and impressive Jerry Lewis.

When three men start harassing a woman who is travelling in the train, in the subway, the Joker seems to be the only other passenger around and he starts with his by now familiar, grating, haunting, strange, signature laugh, which annoys the attackers to the point where they come to the protagonist and start kicking and hitting him, up to the point where he takes the gun out and starts using it with fervor and apparently gusto.

This is one of the scenes where we can perhaps have a hint of the value of the film, the fact that it is more complex than usual, average features, for although the comedian is cornered, it looks like self-defense and indeed, he would be immediately celebrated a s a hero by the public – just as Trump is such a great guy for so many fools – it is still appalling to see him enjoy the violence, immensely…

The joker has just broken a record, it has become the highest – grossing R- rated movie (and already at number 13 (!) on the top Rated Movies list, as ranked by the public) with a total of $ 788.1 million at the box office and maybe on the way to at least one Oscar…