Tanya’s Score: Great*
Rated: 14A
Starring: a raging bully; Ruth Fisher; Joaquin “shoo-in for best actor” Phoenix
Plot: A mentally ill man and wannabe stand-up comedian (Joaquin Phoenix) spirals down a tortured path filled with murder and mayhem.
Tanya’s Verdict: This movie. I haven’t seen one this good in a while. Where I was riveted non-stop; where I wasn’t tempted to look at my watch; where I wasn’t quite sure where it was taking me but I didn’t want it to end.
This movie is not a super hero flick – just to be clear. Sure it references the Joker and it introduces little bitty Bruce Wayne. But this movie could have been about any troubled and tortured soul – it just so happens to be about a fictional man named Arthur Fleck – a man better known as the Joker.
There is so much going on in this movie. So much very interesting stuff. Laughter as a joyless affliction for one – I loved this theme. Every time Joker laughed, the audience (both onscreen and off) cringed and I for one felt just another notch of sympathy for him. Bullies creating terrorists – yet another heavy theme brought to light in this movie for the audience to examine and discuss over coffee afterward.
I see what the kerfuffle is all about – the worry over the depiction of mental illness; the concern over glorified vigilante justice; the fear of copycat violence. But it’s just a movie – about a man – a mentally unstable man who goes down a dark and dismal path.
It’s interesting and compelling and complicated. And I enjoyed it very very much.
*Four score descriptions: Sh**; Okay; Good; Great