JOKER (2019)

I finally got around to seeing JOKER (2019) and found it to be an exceptional film. Much like its R rated cousin DEADPOOL (2015) this film moves the comic book movie genre into a new area but, instead of just ramping up the violence and telling dick jokes, this film is an adult drama about the generational effects of poverty and poor mental health. The film is about may things but it is unique in the genre for focusing on the elements of the human psyche that cause pain. Not just the physical kind but the much more insidious mental pain that can be the catalyst for other types. The movie uses the darkest depths of mental illness to dig into the motivations of truly hideous actions. The focus, of course, is on the title character but the illness of Arthur’s mother is laid bare in more subtle ways that point to the dangers of cycles of pain repeating themselves. But the cruel blind spots of Thomas Wayne also seem evident as he is shown to be a man with a narcissistic personality unwilling to help an individual he sees as lesser. His arrogant self-centered view of Gotham as a place he can fix even as he ignores the helpless begging for aid of people from his past was one of the smaller dark moments that mirrors many of the larger moments in the story. 

I found myself coming back to the descriptor ‘sick’ over and over again as we follow Arthur Peck through his sad day-to-day existence. His suffering flows from many things but it is his sickness – his mental illness - that makes inevitable his acting in ‘sick’ ways.  He is doomed in many ways but it is the pain caused by a childhood instance of violence that slowly destroys him and, through him, much of the city.  Yes, JOKER is basically an amalgamation of TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY with an even darker back story but it works brilliantly.  It’s a depressing drama and it’s good to know that the comic book genre can stretch to include such fascinating movies as this.