Joker review: A nihilistic, unrestrained jumble

If you thought The Dark Knight was grim, then the controversial Joker is an ode to nihilism. It takes itself way too seriously.

If The Dark Knight was grim and shaded in grey, the Joker is tar black.

The classic Batman villain Joker, played previously by the likes of Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Mark Hamill, gets the reboot treatment, this time with Joaquin Phoenix as the maniacal clown with a propensity for violence.

Joker is only just now opening around the world but it has already generated reams of controversy thanks to its ambiguity over its violence and empathy for a sociopathic murderer.

It may not be the most contentious movie of the year, but it will inspire the most hand-wringing among wide releases.

But let’s not get to that just yet. Because even without all that, Joker is still a jumble — sometimes brilliant and sometimes trite. Among its flashes of excellence is a self-serious movie that isn’t nearly as deep as it thinks it is.

Joker isn't as deep as it thinks it is.

The movie follows a basic origin story for Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), who would become Joker before the credits roll.

Fleck is a downtrodden man working as a clown for hire but with aspirations of being a stand-up comic — a career ambition that always surprises those he meets because his whole sad sack thing doesn’t exactly scream funny man.

He lives with his mother Penny (Frances Conroy) and attends a city mental health service once a week where a mostly uncaring case worker doles out his meds. Somewhere in his background is a stint in an institution.

He also has an uncontrollable, discordant laugh that pops up, Tourette’s-style, at inappropriate times.

Fleck is what society terms a loser.

And apparently, a loser can only take so many put-downs and beat-downs before he snaps. Oh, boy. Does he snap.

At this point the movie and the character descend into a violence-fuelled path to the destruction of Gotham.

Joker is trying to say something about the equality gap between the callous, tuxedoed elites of Gotham while the poor are kicked to the kerb, the garbage piles up and the city burns to the ground around them.

And in this, Joker becomes a flashpoint of resistance for those who feel victimised in this economic system to rally around — interesting to note that most of the Gothamites who don clown masks and riot also look like middle-aged frat boys looking for an excuse to punch out.

But Joker actually says very little about wealth inequality, mental illness or victimhood that you can’t glean from the abstract of a longform magazine feature.

The sequence in which a lot of rich people sit in an opulent theatre and laugh at Charlie Chaplin’s The Tramp character is so beyond on the nose.

Phoenix's physicality is entrancing.

The Joker is “tar black”.

Where Joker is strong is Phoenix’s performance. He inhabits the role completely, a hypnotic force you can’t stop watching. In particular, watch how he moves his body, all gangly limbs and strange dance moves to highlight Fleck’s awkwardness and almost otherworldliness.

It may be surprising to know that Joker was directed by Todd Philips, who is best known for The Hangover trilogy, but that experience with slapstick comedy serves him well here in dynamically capturing Phoenix’s mad physicality.

But Philips also doesn’t know when to be restrained. He and director of photography Lawrence Sher compose some genuinely beautiful shots and sequences but then repeat those visual flourishes over and over again to the point of exhaustion.

Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from "Joker”. Picture: Niko Tavernise

While Phoenix is incredible, the film wastes its supporting cast, which also includes Robert De Niro, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham and Zazie Beetz in a stupidly thankless role.

Joker has been slammed for its potential to incite violence from similarly disenfranchised men who may feel entitled to fight back against a system they believe has deprived them of girlfriends, but that isn’t Joker’s only issue.

If it were, Philips may be right in feeling besieged by the negative coverage of the movie’s problematic parts. So while it mostly scores on many technical levels, it could fail to connect with audiences.

Art is meant to be challenging and provocative but Joker steps too far over the line into nihilism and that’s not a fun time for anyone.

Rating: 3/5

Joker is in cinemas from today

Share your movies and TV obsessions | @wenleima