Joker 2019: the irony of putting up a happy face
To miss a movie like Joker 2019 is an act of criminal negligence. If you don’t feel the guilt of missing out on this, then you can be spared as someone with little or no interest in cinema.
The 122 minutes long movie is dark, depressing, and descends dangerously into madness. The cinematography, music, art direction, screenplay, editing, direction, and acting were spot on for the entire duration of the film. Joker 2019 is without a doubt a masterpiece and a classic of modern-day cinema.
Devoid of CGI effects and unabating sequences of action which are the hallmarks of comic book adaptations, Joker 2019 is a departure from all things comic. It cannot be characterized as one. It is also worth mentioning that the DC Comics logo does not appear at the start of the movie. So right from the start, we find ourselves rooted in the brutally realistic world.
As we all know that the character of Joker is not new to cinema. We have seen it in Batman movies, TV series, and in DC comics. With a lot already portrayed and enacted, what possibly could be done to make the character uniquely different and yet be the one which it really has been. Todd Phillips and his co-writer Scott Silver have gone deeper into the psyche of a character and traced his journey from a common insignificant man to an individual who could destroy and erode the already decaying social structure.
Joker has strong symbolic and subliminal messages. When Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is an ordinary man living a miserable life we see him ascending the stairs to reach his apartment. His climbing up the stairs is symbolic of the struggle he was going through to make sense of things. But when he goes crazy we see him dancing down the stairs. His descent is highly symbolic that also sums up the entire idea of his character.
Who is the best Joker? The debate is raging like anything among joker fans. But actually there is nothing to compare. The reason is that the entire film revolves around Arthur Fleck’s psychological and existential problems. When he assumes the persona of the Joker the movie reaches the climax and we see very little of him in the transformed role. Heath Ledger or any other actor before him never played Arthur and that’s what makes Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal an exceptional one.
Joker 2019 has a number of things that are worth discussing. Some are debatable and controversial to some extent. People like us who live in the third world countries can relate to the suffering that the Joker goes through. The corrupt political system, economic depression, and social anarchy are ills that ail our society.
All Arthur wanted to do was make people happy and put on a happy face. But what happens when you get all the beating and ridicule for doing just that; you could lose control and give in to the monster within.
