Joker

The discourse around Joker has been infinitely more interesting than the film itself, as at least in the real world, the clashing ideologies of "love it" and "hate it" understand the root causes of their emotions, much unlike any character in the film itself.

Joker is a mixed bag for many reasons. On the one hand, the look of this film and the central performance from human toothpick Joaquin Phoenix certainly are a few cuts above your standard Hollywood blockbuster (which this is, no matter how hard it insists it isn't) but for every beautiful little attention to detail there is in the film, there's a giant red siren telling you exactly how beautiful that detail is, and how it connects to the main story. The artsier presentation will be the main draw for the film's rapidly growing fanbase, but under all that grime and detail lies the skeleton of a movie that could've been great, had it understood itself a little more.

Joker often feels like a film directed by a seventh-grade history student, often pointing fingers at broad concepts, distilling complex social and political issues into comically evil politicians and the clown army of the "oppressed" they vow to keep down. There are some vague truths under all this chaos, but they are so lightly alluded to or understood that the entire film feels like its smarter than you because it speaks louder. There is a fundamental disconnect between a lot of what the film establishes and what the film claims, from the textbook "psychopath" lifestyle that Joker leads and the "society" that somehow made him this way. These monoliths of oppression, such as Thomas Wayne, government budget cuts, and rising crime are propped up to be these great obstacles to happiness, but the film doesn't really show how these separate ideas play into the bigger picture, leaving the film feel like a first draft to something profound.

But still, at the end of the day, I appreciate Joker for at least trying. In a world where superhero movies are slowly becoming long-form television episodes (with the production limits to boot), I appreciate a film that isn't afraid to be a film, and shy away from the calendar of releases to focus on the story it's trying to tell. I hope that the film's success and general discourse has Hollywood itching to try this on a more radical scale, as there is nothing I'd like to see more than David Lynch's "Superman."