Joker (dir. Todd Phillips, 2019)- EveryFilmIWatch Review

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Joker isn't a terrible film - it's just a film that gets lots wrong and, in my opinion, works neither as franchise wish-fulfilment nor as a standalone piece of cinema. Between director Todd Phillips’ self-satisfied, pseudo-intellectual musings on the profundity of ‘happy vs sad', and the feverish, frenzied acclaim that the film was released to, I’ve found it hard to reconcile my own mixed response with its public reception.

Joker gets caught up in the business of appearing like a masterpiece, rather than bothering with the basics of cinematic storytelling. A beautiful, haunting soundtrack and an intense lead performance are greatly undermined by a lack of character development, and a misunderstanding of organic generation of stakes. The Joker starts the film as a mentally ill outcast, laughing into a mirror with a contorted face and a tear running down his cheek- the film is over before it has begun. Yet the audience do not witness his ascent to the character’s signature strategic genius and trickery, à la Ledger. His brazen execution of a talk show host makes for an utterly crude transformation from Arthur Fleck into the Joker- and a pitiful contrast to the sophistication of the police funeral scene in The Dark Knight.

Any screenwriter who presents a character beaten by strangers in the street, abused by an over-protective mother, and ritualistically humiliated by their childhood idol on national television has abandoned the idea of organic character development. The dialogue is similarly weak: crude lines like ‘you wouldn't get it’ or ‘I used to think my life was a tragedy’ verge on the adolescent. Supporting characters are two dimensional and perfunctory, the plotline stagnant and predictable, despite a few atmospheric moments- Phoenix is hard at work throughout, and a blood-smeared Joker grin proves fairly satisfying.

Overall, Joker’s mere existence is its most insurmountable flaw. Hanging a whole feature on the origin story of such a villain was bound to be a screenwriting nightmare. In The Dark Knight, he was strangely enticing: the audience could admire his cleverness, his unhinged yet defiant stance, his carnivalesque approach to criminality. In Joker, we're simply abandoned in a story with no-one to root for, led by a character who is at best disturbing and distantly pathetic, at worst utterly frustrating and gratuitously violent. I found no guilty pleasure in witnessing the Joker’s nefarious activities; I felt perturbed and, eventually, bored.

The Dark Knight ‘s Joker lies about his backstory throughout the film, contradicting himself over ‘how he got these scars’, and creating a shroud of mystery. We don't really want to know who the Joker is, because he's at his most alluringly frightening when is simply locked in endless combat with the Batman. Discovering that he's actually just a sad guy in a clown outfit - who might have had a chance if life (read: the screenwriter) had cut him a break - makes him so much less appealing and compelling. But the Hollywood machine must keep churning, so it's no surprise that DC went ahead and played their wild card. A real disappointment, but, in retrospect, not an unpredictable one.

EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.