Angering Disappointment - Joker Review

So I was not planning on going to see Joker in theaters.

Anyone who follows my Twitter or knows me in person can probably figure that out from either my lukewarm to negative reception of the trailers, to me outright saying I wouldn't watch it. However after getting home from band practice, one of my friends asked if I wanted to see it for his birthday. I've known him for almost a full decade, so naturally I said I would. I had already read some of the script online, so I was pretty sure that I had an idea of how it was going to play out...

I was completely wrong.

Let's get this out of the way; comic books are very dear to my heart. I've loved them for years, ever since my dad handed me my first Spider-Man and Batman comics. (My personal favorite being Spectacular Spider-Man #200 for a number of my childhood years.) I love comics and I always have, and in recent years, I've loved comic book movies. I've always been a Marvel fan, but I'll admit that DC has put out some seriously good work. I love both companies so much. And though in recent years, I haven't liked a great number of comic-based movies, I would be lying if I said I cannot stand any of them.At least, I would have been... Until I saw Joker

I don't want anyone to think that I made up my mind before I went to see this movie, because I really didn't. I had expectations for sure, I wasn't expecting anything good by way of writing, (not much had changed in the script which was saddening), I assumed it would have great color, shot composition, editing, acting, set design, practical effects, symbolism, and a fantastic score. I had expectations from all these people saying how amazing it was, I figured the script was just a problem that I'd be able to overlook. The result of the movie? I was kind of right?

There was only one good part, and it sucks that good is the most that I can give to the best part of the movie. That had to be the score composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir. It fit the movie well, and it’s actually decent.

And now we get to my “controversial” opinions, because I have a lot. There are many people on the internet claiming Joaquin Phoenix to be the “best actor” of all time just for this one role. Personally, I am a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix, but this performance is just not good. I can’t understand what people see in it. Nothing he does feels natural and I never once believed him in the role. As a person who actually likes Joaquin Phoenix a lot, it hurts me to say that he’s not a good Joker. I really wanted him to be good, but he just wasn’t.

Another hot take here, the cinematography is kinda bad, the backdrops and costumes are cool and all, but Todd Phillips does not understand how to properly direct a cinematographer. He just tries to emulate important shots from famous films, but he doesn’t capture why these are important. He wants to capitalize on how we recognize shots from other films, he’s tricking people into thinking the cinematography is good, but aside from a few great looking shots, it’s bland and forgettable with no meaning at all. I can’t describe how important color is in making good cinematography. Joker fails with color on a fundamental level, with the color grading being particularly awful. In some scenes it wants “Gotham” to be stressed as dirty with a yellowish lighting, but in others it’s a blinding white. In what’s been called one of the “best” scenes in the movie, it’s shot with red lighting, and that fits the scene, but Phillips can’t keep the red lighting for more than a few shots, and there’s a throwaway clip for about 1 second that looks blue and white. That may sound like a nitpick, but I’m writing this 3 weeks later, and that still sticks out to me. There’s also this sense that Todd Phillips has no idea how the rules of filmmaking work. One of the main rules, is that you don’t break a rule without good reason, and Phillips DOES NOT HAVE A GOOD REASON. Every thing he does that is “unconventional” looks like it was made by a first year film student. Much of the film looks like the mockumentary about a talking ear that I made over the summer at a high school film camp. It’s dull to look at in spots, but incredibly over saturated at others. I cannot understand what people mean when they say “the cinematography was amazing” because it’s not. It’s just a hollow series of shots that sometimes look terrible but other times look kind of like other movies.

And then we get to the script, and it is atrocious. Joker has to have one of the worst scripts in any movie that I have ever seen. That sounds like an exaggeration but it’s not. Everything that happens is just because the plot needs it to happen. There are also maybe 8 Plot lines? I’m not sure, if I were to rewatch it (which I wouldn’t do willingly) I’d try to keep count. I will barely even touch the tonal whiplash even though I have so many thoughts, but it was terrible and I’ll mostly leave it at that. The dialogue feels forced and absolutely terrible and I feel bad for all of the actors involved. (Also some people have pointed this out but they mention Wall Street many times even though this is Gotham and not New York. That’s just kinda weird to me.)

Now in addressing a film, I try to make sure that my thoughts are not at all related to what goes on outside of it. But I have to address that “because he’s crazy” is not an excuse for poor filmmaking. You can love something and admit it’s flaws, not everything needs an excuse.

Fanboys flock to this movie because it makes the Joker empathetic and sympathetic, that is not a good thing. I don’t think this is going to cause shootings like many seem to, but the positive public outcry in support of this movie does scare me, as well as the mass financial success. This made over 1 billion dollars at the box office, meaning that people are going to want more, Warner Brothers and other companies want money from the market that they’ve tapped into here. This kind of movie is normalized and this kind of personality becomes acceptable, and that is what I’m scared of.

That is why I hate Joker. Not for all of the reasons I dislike it, but because it makes a terrible personality acceptable to everyone else.