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Joker Review - A Descent to Madness!

PUBLISHED DATE : 03/Oct/2019

Joker Review - A Descent to Madness!

Joker Review - A Descent to Madness!

Suhansid Srikanth

 

The mould of what pushes a man into a maniac and what causes the need for the rise of a superhero is classic. It reinvents itself every now and then. It is in it, the greatest of action films have always been built. But how Todd Philips directorial, Joker, shines apart is in how it empathises with its madness. The insanity doesn't start from written conflicts but the very society he lives in. 


Joker is a quite descent into madness. When a bunch of bullies snatch a no-man's business sign board and thrash him.. When he asks the public to stop them and no one cares.. When his deficiency is made fun of in an open TV show.. When his psychiatrist tells him that the government has shut down the expenses to take care of people's mental health.. When his father disapproves his identity.. Arthur Fleck breaks and breaks into the tiniest of fragments. Like a fission reaction, it is then he outbursts.
 

Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenal as Arthur Fleck! The tongue to the role is smirkingly bitten to its very tee by him. From a syndrome person who laughs in absurd conditions when he get tensed to a raging lunatic who writes his own judgements, he exhibits one hell of a range. The violence in the film is internalized in him. And it is in his temptation to redempt himself, the film gets its rage and peak of lunacies. It is nothing short of epic to see Phoenix unwind himself in the character's ups and lows.

In a terrific scene where Joker presents himself in TV show.. he insists De Niro's character (a TV show host who uses Arthur's clip to make fun of) to present him as JOKER. And, the sequence is staged intrinsically to get us peeled and peeled, layer after layer into Arthur's anger. In many which ways, Joker can also be drawn parallel to Taxi Driver. Arthur's descent to insanity is more or less the same as that of Travis Bickle. If the former was political.. here it is personal. And I felt that it is that this film is so personal, it appears even more political. The relevance it holds to our contemporary times where empathy is lost and government's stands doesn't validate commoners is an interesting analogy to look at!

In other hand, Joker is also a stunningly made cinema that is meant for a big screen experience! Lawrence Sher's cinematography had this indie quality that captures the city and society in all its ugliness and brutality. Hildur Guonadottir's score rhythms along to the tunes of ecstacy that Arthur Fleck goes through. The vignettes and moments enrich a rich cinematic pleasure to witness!


Bottomline: Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix in a fantastic form, a socio-psychological thriller drama directed by Todd Philips is a supremely made cinema. It breaks all the conventions of how comic characters are interpreted and humanizes the mania that pushes a common man into insanity. 

Rating: 4.5/5

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