My name is Nolan and I am not only a co-host of ‘A Conversation Podcast’ but I also watch a lot of movies, and I know a lot about movies, at least I like to think so. That is where this blog comes in I want to write about movies because I want to refine my writing skills and sometimes I just want to talk about movies. I want to make movies one day and I think the work we do here at Low Quality Productions is a great outlet for that. Anyway, last weekend I saw Todd Phillips “JOKER” and I was very impressed.
SPOILER ALERT FOR TODD PHILLIPS ‘JOKER” (2019)
I saw Joker on a Monday night with some friends of mine, we sat behind a few boys who talked a little too much for my liking but we were sat high up by ourselves for the most part. I think the way this movie starts is almost cheating, it takes less than 5 minutes for us to get pulled in and feel pity for Arthur. We see him get kicked and beaten for no reason and the way he coils up into a ball and takes it gives the idea that he has been in this situation before. It’s sad. It’s also a little scary, but not in the Halloween way, in the “This is society” way. Title card and the next thing worth noting is his care for his mother. Their relationship I explored more deeply as the movie goes on but at first glance, we can see that Arthur and his mother are on fairly good terms, which only adds to the downward spiral his life becomes later when he kills her. We saw this man literally beat on the street come home and feed his mother like nothing ever happened and we wonder if it’s possible this story has a happy ending. He is almost happy here, with his mother watching one of his heroes on late night TV and remembering the one great night he had on stage. That scene is important because Arthurs goal is to be on that stage like Murray. He is so close but he’s not there, he’s talking and smiling and laughing. But it’s fleeting and when he flashes back to his reality, we can see him romanticize the past as he watches the current actors and actresses. The next morning, he gets a gun, but he knows he is not allowed to have one, he even tells his co-worker he shouldn’t have one. He takes the gun and two important things happen, he kills three young men, and he gets fired for bringing that gun to work. It is ironic the gun is a complete negative across both beats, he kills for the first time and gets fired from his job, in a way that gun is more of a catalyst then most other things in the movie. I think his reaction to the initial murders are important, he knows he can’t leave the man alive and in a moment of intense forethought on his part, Arthur waits out the witness who he then kills. He later talks about how it didn’t faze him, how it didn’t matter to him he killed three people. It’s scary and telling of his character. He plays around with the idea of suicide with a real gun and not the finger guns he showed to his neighbor down the hall but after that killing his character changes and he becomes happier in his own twisted way. He bombs on stage and ironically ends up on the late-night talk show after killing his neighbor and his mother for lying to him about the Wayne family connection. Right before that, however, is the most uneasy scene in the movie, Arthur dancing down the stairs to his apartment building, full make-up and bright suit. Dancing, smoking and smiling. It uneasy, because you know why he’s so happy, you know he’s feeling good because of the terrible things he has done. This scene made me think about one thing, the movie is entering its climax and the line between Arthur in minute 1 of this movie and Arthur in full paint dancing on the steps is so paper thin it’s scary. He brutally murdered his only friend, his own mother, a neighbor and he’s more alive than ever. Police chase through the subway with one casualty and we get another awesome shot of the joker in full make-up smoking and walking out of the subway as police officers rush in. He ends up on the Murray show in full make-up where he makes his public confession, commits a murder on TV and then heads outside to bathe in the chaos he has caused. We meet with him in the back of a squad car, watching fires burn and people riot. Arthur is laughing. He thrives on chaos, because he’s just a man and when there is no order and everyone, I equal he can take power. Ambulance crashes into the squad car and the joker- not Arthur- gets pulled out and rested atop of the squad car. He takes a second to rise and as he does, he hears people chanting his name and creates the famous blood smile on his face. Then the final scene depicts him talking to a shrink and then him running from orderlies which is kind of a hard turn from the violence we were just being shown. End Card.
Joker is about a lot of things, mental illness, lying, power corruption, how you treat others, it’s about how one act can create a million consequences but more than anything it’s about how society as a whole exists on the edge. One crime is all it took for these people to end up turning over cars on the street, one idea that spread through the media like wildfire. Out of chaos and new man rose. That scene where he rises and smiles to see all his followers, that is not Arthur. That is Joker. We spent two hours watching a man’s life crumble at the end of that he isn’t the same person.
Closing thoughts: Joker is probably the best villain in general just based on the idea that he is the opposite of batman. Batman is very by the book and his moral code defines him. Joker is the exact opposite; he thrives on chaos and anarchy and the more blood and fire happening around him the happier he is. He’s the inverse. This movie depicts that in a great way, we watch this movie to see who he becomes but the thing that makes this movie great is the ride that we take. It could have very easily been Arthur getting a gun and shooting people, realizing he likes it and then shooting more people. It was not that, Joker is a carefully manipulated ride that takes you through all the downs of this mans life and even when you think there is a positive thing, a good person, someone to keep him grounded, it takes it away. We are drawn in immediately to care for Arthur and we don’t like to see him get hurt. But we don’t excuse him for hurting others. There I a balance struck that means when the credits roll all you can think about is how quickly It happened. How fast you watched a person go from caring son, to murderous psychopath.
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