It was a rare moment where a movie about a super villain from comic books got the headline for its rave reviews. Naturally I was intrigued to see the film and my wife and I went to see this last night during its first day of release in Indonesia. As I thought it was not a full action movie, I did not mind to see it in the theater near our home with standard sound system. Well how was the movie then? I'll get on with it below.
Brief Story Line
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix - Gladiator, The Village etc) was a mentally disorder person who worked as a clown for hire. He had been taking medications for his sickness and was living with his mother Penny (Frances Conroy - American Horror Story, Six Feet Under TV series etc). Arthur had always wanted to become a successful comedian and he was also a big fan of a famous TV host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro - The Intern, The Godfather Part II etc).
Due to various incidents combined with Arthur's mental condition, things would turn for the worse for him.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this amazing tale of one of the most infamous Batman's villain.
End of Brief Story Line
I am usually not a huge fan of a heavy drama especially a "one-man-show" such as this one. But this movie somehow intrigued me and managed to captivate me the whole time. From the moment Joaquin Phoenix appeared with his creepy laughter I was already convinced that he suit the role perfectly. And scene after scene we would be shown the transformation of Arthur into the character we have known all this time.
Bear in mind though that this is a drama movie with some touches of heavy violence that might shock you. It is not the light superhero (or antihero) film that could be easily enjoyed by all ages or even teenagers. It was rated for 17+ in Indonesia which was perfect, so better not let the kids see this one. Btw, I was quite surprised (but pleased) that there did not seem to be any censor done when I saw this movie. The duration of 122 minutes seemed exactly the same as shown in various movie websites and it did not have any mid or post end credits scene.
As mentioned above, this felt like a movie for Joaquin Phoenix to excel, but there were also other supporting characters here. Frances Conroy despite not having lots of screen time was great as Arthur's mother while Robert De Niro was OK as the TV host. There were also other minor roles such as Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) as Arthur's neighbor, Brett Cullen (The Shallows) as Thomas Wayne, Glenn Fleshler with Leigh Gil as Arthur's co-worker Randall & Gary respectively and Douglas Hodge.
One amazing factor I felt in this movie was the setting. It was set in the early 1980s in the fictional Gotham city which was awesomely created and really had the dark and gloomy feel. The costumes department also did their job fantastically with the clothes looked a lot like from that period. The other part that was great was the background music and sound. Some songs were played in the perfect time and there were also the silence with some close up views of Arthur's face that was just plain eerie. I also felt that the movie's tone was consistent till the end and huge credit has to be given to the director Todd Phillips (The Hangover trilogy, Starsky & Hutch movie etc) for managing to maximize all of those aspects.
For a movie that focused on the character development of one person, it was certainly one of the very best I had ever seen. Joaquin Phoenix really went all the way to make this character felt so real. From what I understand, he purposely lose more than 20kgs to show him as a malnourished person (such dedication). My wife and I were really in awe of his performance, and after seeing Joaquin in this role, she personally felt that it was even more convincing than Heath Ledger's portrayal in The Dark Knight. I read in many websites that Joaquin might be in the run for various awards for this movie. We'll see about that in few months time.
Oh, I also loved the fact that even though it was a movie about Joker, the writers did not forget that he would be Batman's villain and there were few glimpses to remind us about that. But this is not part of the DC Extended Universe as it was meant to be a standalone movie. Something that might seem odd and probably confusing if you expect those connections. So just consider this as psychological thriller drama movie which happens to focus on a comic book's character. Btw, there were also one or two twists that were meant to add extra surprise, but as they were not too difficult to see through, I personally think they were not really useful additions.
Overall this was a fantastic movie, very dark and quite violent capped by amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix. A movie that might not be enjoyable (probably even disturbing) for audience seeking for light films with lots of actions. My wife and I were part of those who enjoyed the movie a lot. The way Joker was characterized was amazing as sometimes it could make us feel sad or pity him, which just showed how great the movie was as we knew we should not feel sorry for such an evil person. Anyway if you are looking for heavy drama movie of such quality, then this one is definitely for you.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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