I went to watch Joker. Everyone I know loved this movie so I was really hyped. I’ve waited to have time to watch it and enjoy it. Now that I did it, I don’t even know where to start talking about it.
I love Joaquin Phoenix‘s acting. Yes, the whole movie is about his character, but everything else is shaded. I guess I will just list everything I didn’t like, since everybody else will tell you about the scenes that will go down in history.
There is no space for other actors, as, in the first place, no other character got a proper development. The social worker doesn’t do her work. The mother is catatonic; why cast Frances Conroy, to give her such a futile part?
The colleagues’ role in the story; it’s not clearly understandable if they are friends or not. The girl next door, is even worse. I don’t get how a person with such a complex personality would have been comforted by imagining her next to himself. Even removing all the scenes where she appears, the movie will not change. Arthur doesn’t need love in his life. He needs to be understood and accepted.
This is what Mental Health is about… Acceptance.
A lot of people cannot blend in with society. A lot of people cannot stand not being accepted. The right thing would be just be themselves and just let it go: we see Arthur struggling with this in the first part of the movie. He has a condition that makes him laugh when he is upset, angry or anxious. He tries to suffocate this laughter, which is in a certain way himself, to try to blend in. His disease is not accepted, sometimes even dismissed as a joke. How would you feel in his shoes?
He is angry, and his anger only grows. The only person who he thinks to be loved by, his mother, caused his unhappiness and, ultimately, his condition. He always wears a happy face, but he is not happy inside. From anger comes rage. After the first killing he seems to see himself as a danger, a person who will never be accepted. Here comes the twist. He has nothing more to lose. Instead of suicide on live television, he murders the host, played by the amazing Robert De Niro. NO, Joaquin couldn’t shade him. Anyway he chooses this new dark path. Well we know how the story continues in the comics. He is now a bad guy.
Isn’t society the main villain?
The truth is that the movie had great material to work on, a taboo. Yes, no one cares about the mentally ills. At most a few that choose mental health as their vocation. It is overwhelming, it is difficult to understand and the struggle is real.
The lack of empathy will be our fall. Just start to be nice. Don’t make fun of the weirdness, be curious about it, try to understand it. Don’t deliver a Joker… Ok, maybe I went too far.
Let’s get back to the movie. I would have make it end at the car scene. When he embraces his true self in all of its parts. He embraces his madness, while people praise him. In those few shots he becomes the Joker we all know. Why the f**k did they appended that scene in Arkham? WHY?
At first, I thought that the director decided to show us his future escape. Then. I found some theories online stating that he was in Arkham all along. Is it though? Would it make sense? I felt like the delusion became more and more indistinguishable from reality. Somehow him at the Murray Franklin’s show was the only delusion matching his character. Why would he imagine the murder of the Waynes? It doesn’t make sense.
To wrap up. Yes, Oscar to Joaquin. Don’t even think about the movie. Todd Philips has a very good potential as a dramatic Director, I hope he keeps trying, but this is not “it”.
Alessia Sorbo
2019-11-20