Joker (Film Review)

Wow.. just wow. Watching a psychological thriller is seriously quite taxing for the mind. I felt so tired after watching Joker. But it was worth it. I love the characters in the DC universe more so than Marvel. They just have the best villains, don't they? 

Anyway, there are so many things to unpack. But first of all, let me just say that I don't agree that this movie is going to promote more violence. In fact, it should do the opposite of that. (More on this point later) Research has shown that when most people watch violent movies, some part of their brain lights up or something. I don't know the scientific terms but I've read this somewhere before. Basically, this means that they get uncomfortable. But for aggressive people, this part of their brain doesn't light up because this is considered normal to them. So in general, I feel that there's a weak case against violent movies and games because most people aren't affected by them. They are able to indulge in these forms of entertainment without having the intention of actually hurting anyone in real life. Trying to pin the blame on violent movies is not a valid argument.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to discuss the themes in this movie. The acting was superb and I know that this was kind of loosely based on the comics and not the actual origin story of the Joker. To be fair, there are a few versions of how the persona of the Joker came to be, and that's great because you aren't supposed to have him all figured out. So this is just a new version. I would say that this is a new and improved version actually, because it's more realistic than falling into a vat of chemical waste.

Arthur Fleck is a really complicated character, and I feel that that's an understatement. In the movie, the audience is made to sympathise with Arthur because he has to go through some tough shit in his life. He's always getting beaten down by others - both physically and verbally. When the movie first starts, we see him painting his face so that he looks like a clown, but a tear is rolling down his cheek and forming a black line at the same time. 

And throughout the whole movie, Arthur is indeed a sad clown. It's already bad enough that Arthur already has some sort of mental illness and has to rely on a social service programme. He talks to a social worker, takes his medication, and carries a card around, explaining that he has a condition that causes him to laugh. This is also known as the pseudobulbar affect (PBA), which causes episodes of sudden uncontrollable and inappropriate laughing or crying. He mentions that he's not allowed to have a gun as well.

For the first part of the movie, Arthur is trying to fit in with society and earn enough money to support himself and his sickly mother. But it's so hard. Later on, things start to spiral out of control partially because the funding for his social service programme has been cut and Arthur stops taking his medication. This is the hard truth that the audience is made to confront: that we as a society may not be doing enough for the mentally ill. We still shun them, as seen by countless of people Arthur interacts with, and he's doesn't really have any true friends. His coworkers think that he's a freak and the woman we thought that he was dating is actually afraid of him.

Since Arthur suffers from some kind of mental illness, he is an unreliable narrator. As an audience, we only get to see what he thinks is happening around him. But once it is revealed that his romantic relationship with his neighbour is merely a delusion, it makes perfect sense. At first, I wondered why Sophie, a single mother who was actually stalked by Arthur from her child's school to the bank, would be okay with the fact that Arthur followed her that day. She seemed to confront him about it and then they somehow started dating. In his mind, she watched his comedy routine and was by his side when his mother was at the hospital. But when Arthur drops by Sophie's house later on and sits on her couch, she has a look of fear on her face and she asks him to leave. It's only then that the audience is made to realise that Arthur was delusional.

This delusion mirrors that of his mother's, Penny. She thought that she and Thomas Wayne were in love and Arthur was Thomas' son. When Arthur asks Thomas about this, Thomas asserts that Penny was delusional and Arthur was adopted. Mental illnesses can sometimes run in families, but it's just one of the many causes and in the end it does turn out that Arthur was adopted. He was abandoned and we don't know who his real parents are. Arthur later checks hospital records (he has to forcefully grab it from the administrative staff actually) and finds documents about Penny's stay at the Arkham State Hospital, as well as articles stating that Penny had allowed her boyfriend to abuse her and her adopted son.

This is news to Arthur himself, who doesn't seem to remember the events when he was a child. There are a few possible explanations for this. First of all, most people don't remember stuff from when they were really young. Secondly, if he had been abused, he could have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), because in order to ensure survival, our brains may naturally block out and avoid distressing memories. However, there's one other thing. He had a head injury as a result of abuse, and this may have caused his PBA as well as some memory loss.

(P.S. if you're wondering why I know a little bit about these things, it's because I studied local play "Off Centre" by Haresh Sharma for 'O' levels and then at the university level, I took a module called "Narrating Trauma". So I had to do bits of research on mental illnesses and PTSD. But I'm no expert, and such information can be easily found via Google of course)

I think it was at this point in the film that a tear rolled down my left cheek. (In the film, the Joker is always crying, causing his blue eye makeup to run) All this was too much to bear. Although it shouldn't have been surprising that he ended up murdering people, it was still shocking and horrifyingly gruesome to watch. There were no support structures left for him. For most of us, we have our family, then our friends, and then society or the community. For Arthur, his mother was complicit in his abuse and he ends up smothering her with a pillow. His romantic relationship was a delusion. He has no real friends. (Randall, a coworker of his, gave him a gun which dropped out when Arthur was performing at a children's hospital. When he got into trouble with his boss, Randall claimed that Arthur bought the gun himself. Arthur later kills Randall right in front of another coworker Gary)

And society shuns him. They don't understand his random laughter and they don't give him a reason to explain, causing Arthur to kill 3 men on the subway. (The 3 men were harassing a woman on the train and honestly, they were asking for trouble. Arthur laughed and wanted to take his card out of his bag but they started beating up him, so he fired his gun in self-defense and killed 2 of them. The last one was silenced) 

And finally, they mock his stand-up routine because he couldn't stop laughing. That was possibly the last straw. Talk show host Murray plays the clip of his routine on his show and jokes about it. Previously, Arthur had a flashback about how he once attended Murray's show as part of the live audience. He told Murray that he lived with his mother and took care of her, and that his mom said he was there to bring joy and laughter to the world. (Penny always called Arthur "Happy" during the film, which was kinda creepy to be honest. Why are you pressurising your kid to always be happy? Also, she claimed that she didn't abuse her son and said that her son was always happy, when that's entirely false. Even if he wasn't depressed, it's simply impossible for anyone to always be happy)

In Arthur's flashback, Murray praised him and said he wished he had a son like him. Something to that effect. But by the time Arthur gets invited to the talk show for his viral video, the audience already knows that he's an unreliable narrator. His flashback probably never happened at all. He was just seeking validation from a father figure, and since he and Penny always watch Murray's show, perhaps that was the only father figure he had.

Murray also represents the media and society at large. He represents the rich and famous, the successful and the elite. Being trampled on by someone who was once your idol causes Arthur to flip. He goes on the show as an invited guest but ends up confronting Murray live on television, pointing out how hypocritical the talk show host is by inviting him there just to ridicule him more. Then he puts a bullet through his head on live television.

I'm not condoning any of Arthur's murders but we at least get an understanding of how he got to the point where he could just murder someone so easily. And if anything, this movie doesn't promote violence at all. If you think that's the case, you've entirely missed the point. The message is as clear as day: violence is scary as hell. Arthur is extremely unpredictable and you don't know when his next kill is going to happen. Everyone in the movie and everyone in the audience was horrified when bullets were fired and crimson red blood splattered all over the place. Or when he attacked Randall with a pair of scissors. I flinched and other people in the theatre did so too. We gasped audibly and covered our mouths in fright. We couldn't believe our eyes. 

No, it most certainly does not promote violence. It's a warning that if society doesn't step up and change the way we treat the poor and the disenfranchised, the world is going to descend into chaos. This is what could possibly happen if rich and powerful people call those living on the streets "clowns" and "jokers", effectively putting negative labels on them. It could happen if unemployment is rife and crime soars. If nothing is done to solve these problems. If social services get cut off and the government no longer provides any form of support to those who are at the lowest rung of society.

If you know anything about Gotham city, you'd know that it's a mess. Villains are everywhere and Batman has to try to stop them all. Near the end of the movie, Joker gets arrested and he's in a police car. He looks out the window and sees rioters everywhere. Overturned cars, people in clown masks, fire and chaos. Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered. It really does seem like the "Batman" video games have come to life. The Joker even gets set free by some rioters who crash an ambulance into the police car and drag him out. They hail him as their hero and cheer his lunacy. And that's hella scary.