Joker (R)
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The Joker has always been one of my favorite villains, and certainly my favorite Batman villain. When I stop to think about it, I don't really know why. I could say it's because of his theatricality, but what Gotham villain doesn't have theatricality? Maybe it's just because he's the most iconic Batman villain. Whatever the case, I've always known he was a very bad guy. A murderer. Still, we rarely actually see him kill anyone, and even then, it's usually done in a way that's meant to be funny. But this movie is more grounded in reality; in the end, Joker is really just a guy with a gun. His first murders were, I would say, self defense, but he absolutely didn't need to kill the third of the three assholes who attacked him on the subway. There weren't many murders after that, and they come much later in the film.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This movie introduces a new origin story for Joker, and it's always interesting to see different takes on the character, whether he be portrayed by Jack Nicholson, or Heath Ledger, or my personal favorite, Mark Hamill (or anyone else, or just in the comics). Arthur Fleck, as he's called here (played by Joaquin Phoenix), is certainly a pitiable individual. For one thing, he has a condition that occasionally makes him burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, at the worst times. His job as a rental clown isn't going well, and there's little chance of his finding success in his dream job as a stand-up comedian. Life seems to kick him in every way possible, aside from two relationships that appear to be the only good things in his life. One is taking care of his ailing mother, Penny (Frances Conroy, from American Horror Story). The other is a new romantic relationship with his neighbor from down the hall, Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz). However, even those relationships eventually turn out to have disturbing twists. In any event, it was obviously a terrible idea for his fellow clown, Randall, to have given him a gun for protection.

At one point, I paused the DVD to use the bathroom. When I got back, I kept thinking "all this movie does is make me deeply uncomfortable". I considered not finishing it. It took me some time to work up enough emotional energy to press 'play', but I'm glad I did see the whole thing. I think once Arthur finally gives up all hope of, well, being a decent human being, he begins to become more interesting, even while becoming more disturbing. What's probably even more disturbing than Joker himself is his effect on Gotham society. It started with the triple subway homicide, for which many people considered the anonymous shooter a hero, and inspired protests over Gotham's economic injustices, with people wearing clown masks or makeup. It really blew up after Joker's appearance on a local talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), of whom Arthur was a longtime fan. I don't want to spoil what happens there, but it leads to the protests becoming a full-blown riot, with many people idolizing Joker. On the familiar old level of my fandom of the character in all his permutations, I kind of enjoyed that. But mostly it disturbed me, in large part because I feel like it invalidates the justifiable protests. I don't even necessarily mind protests turning into riots, when the cause is just, but to idolize a murderer the way they do... I just think it paints a largely inaccurate and unfair image of protestors and even rioters in the real world, most of whom don't condone, much less commit, murder, regardless of the causes they're fighting for.

Well, I'm leaving out a great many details of the plot. I don't know what else to say, except that I can't really imagine this version of the Joker ever becoming a worthy adversary for Batman. (But that's still about 20 years away, as Bruce Wayne is just a young boy in this movie. So who knows?) Anyway, I think it's basically a good movie, though I don't think I could say I enjoyed it much. I certainly don't think I'd ever have the desire to watch it again. But at least it was an interesting take on the character.