SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I hadn’t planned on seeing the film ‘Joker’ at the cinema when it came out in October 2019. But after hearing a lot of people talk about it, I decided to find out what this film was like. I went to see the film at the cinema with my best mate from school Stephen. He saw this film twice before I saw it. 😀
So, what did I make of ‘Joker’ overall then? (Pause) Well, I’ll definitely say this. (Pause) It was a lot better than ‘Venom’. Yeah, I’m disappointed ‘Venom’ didn’t turn out to be the way ‘Joker’ ended up. It was clearly the kind of origins story I wanted to see with a villain in a comic book superhero movie.
‘Joker’ of course is based on the DC Comics character, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the titular anti-hero. It was pretty interesting to see this film as it’s kind-of set in the ‘Batman’ universe, but not really. I mean, the film provides this intriguing possible origins story for the character in a pretty unique way.
The film takes place in the year 1981. It focuses on Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck who tries to be a stand-up comedian in Gotham City. During the film, it’s revealed that he has mental health issues and it’s this series of unfortunate events that lead him to become the Joker with the people around him.
I won’t deny, I found this film pretty shocking and disturbing when I watched it on the big screen. I’m sensitive about the issues tackled in the film, including the mental health problems Arthur Fleck has with laughing uncontrollably and people not caring for him in a way people should’ve cared for him.
Joaquin Phoenix excels in the film and it’s intriguing how he provides varying layers to his character of Arthur Fleck before becoming the Joker. You can understand and emphasise why he ended up being the Joker whilst at the same time finding his violent acts towards the climax really inexcusable.
There are quite a few gruesome violent scenes in the film which I had to be brave in watching as I saw the film. But most of the film is pretty good psychological drama. It was compelling to see how Arthur Fleck goes towards his downfall with aspiring to be a comedian before he ends up as a villain.
A number of scenes in the film take place in Arthur’s mind due to his mental condition. Some of the scenes I was able to register when watching the film, but then there were also some that completely passed me by. It was after seeing the film that I discussed those scenes with my best friend Stephen.
Gotham City is a pretty abysmal place and exactly as you’d expect with its crime-ridden activities. In fact, a lot of the crime going on in the movie is caused by the Joker as the criminals begin to praise him as a hero when the cops are after him. It was compelling to see it unravelled in that showdown.
The film also features Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin, a talk show host who plays a pivotal role in Arthur’s downfall. There’s also Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, who becomes Arthur’s ‘love interest’ in the movie and there’s Frances Conrory as Penny Fleck, Arthur’s mentally and physically ill mother.
There’s a brief appearance of Bruce Wayne as a young boy, played by Dante Pereira-Olsen, before he became Batman. There’s also Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father. It was intriguing to see Thomas Wayne not being nice to Arthur when he gets to meet him in the film.
The talk show scene towards the end of the film was pretty shocking, especially when Arthur as Joker reveals himself to be the murderer of three men on a tube train before eventually shooting Murray Franklin on set. I anticipated that was coming as I saw the film, but it was still really shocking.
The thing I found disappointing about the film is that the Joker didn’t shoot Bruce Wayne’s parents at the end. Instead that was done by some random criminal in the film. I would’ve preferred it if the Joker shot Bruce’s parents, as it would’ve reflected nicely in what he did in the 1989 ‘Batman’ movie.
‘Joker’ is a pretty good villain movie set in a sort-of ‘Batman’ universe. I wouldn’t regard it as a favourite, but I’m glad I’ve seen the movie to know what it’s like. Joaquin Phoenix is excellent as the Joker and it’s no surprise the film is regarded as one of the highest 15/R-rated grossing films in 2019.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Great review Tim, as a mental health sufferer this film really showcased the flaws in the system perfectly, what Arthur experiences as just another sufferer resonates with me as the treatment, waiting list to be seen is damm right appalling, i had wait 9 months before seeing a Psychologist who provided me with medication & told me there would only be a number of therapy sessions which is ludicrous cause each case is different, some may need more sessions other’s less so, showing this was bold & i applaud the script & direction for emphasising the current flaws.
I loved this film, Batman my favourite comic book character & this film was gritty, believable character drama instead of a big budget comic book action flick, somehow despite Arthurs decent into madness i really felt empathy & sadness for his character, a man trying to survive the hardshops of life but stamped on by people or circumstances everyday.
I like how Thomas Wayne was portrayed as a arrogant rich asshole this was actually how Thomas father was wrote in Wayne Of Gotham but the writer’s changed it to fit Thomas character in this movie, i honestly think Arthur is his son & believe he had Penny sectioned to cover it up, look at Alfreds reaction to seeing Arthur he knows who he is.
I like that Joker doesn’t kill the Waynes as that was done in Batman 89, what it does is show Arthurs actions & becomes this symbol of a uprising for the poor in how society treats the poor is actually the downfall of Thomas Wayne by his own doing when he called the poor & downtrodden clowns, by doing nothing to help them he has infact caused these people to protest & therefore his & Martha’s death.
For me Ledger still the best but Phoenix a close second & i do hope we get a sequel to this Joker because I’d love to see where they take the character next.
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Hi Simon.
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Joker’.
I’m pleased you approve how the film tackled the mental health issues with Arthur’s character and how it dealt with the flawed system attending to people with mental health issues. It must be frustrating for people like yourself who’ve been through the waiting process and I’m glad you could relate to Arthur going through that in the film.
This was a pretty grisly, gritty film when I saw it in the cinema, but I found how it good it was in developing character drama for Arthur Fleck/the Joker. I like the tie-ins to Batman and Gotham City in the film and it’d be interesting to see how the story continues from here should a sequel ever get made.
Interesting thoughts you have about Thomas Wayne’s character and that you thought it was right the Joker didn’t kill Bruce Wayne’s parents at the end. Thanks for sharing your insight to me on this.
Many thanks for your comments Simon.
Tim. 🙂
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Greetings Tim.
I’m glad you’ve watched this movie. I’ve seen it twice, first in the cinema and the second time was on Blu-Ray. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t call it the best thing ever, which annoyingly is what a lot of people claimed it to be, not to mention it garnered a lot of controversy mostly from the violence and the use of a certain song. I can also see as to why some people may not like it. Most of them believed Joaquin Phoenix’s performance to be the only positive quality. It was compared by some to another film starring Robert De Niro which was ‘Taxi Driver’ by Martin Scorsese. ‘Joker’ was of course nominated for a few Academy Awards and I believe it won best actor (Phoenix) and best score (Hildur Guðnadóttir) although I might be wrong on the latter. It was also nominated for best picture, but it lost out to ‘Parasite’, but it did however win best picture at the Venice International film festival. It was praised by many people including the voice of the Joker, Mark Hamill. I have recently been reading through the films source material, which is the comic book, ‘Batman: the Killing Joke’.
P.s. today, I went to HMV and purchased Doctor Who the Collection Season 19 at last! Woohoo!! 😄
WF92
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Hi WF92.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Joker’. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this film but my Dad has become interested about seeing it lately. Hopefully I’ll be able to see this film again soon and share updated thoughts on it. It is a very dark film but it’s intriguing how it does a unique take on the origin story of the Joker. Glad you got your Season 19 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’. Hope you enjoy it.
Many thanks,
Tim. 🙂
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Hi Tim,
I have to say that when I first saw ‘Joker’ in the cinema four years ago, I thought it was really good. However, having seen it for the third time, it’s sadly not as good as I first thought it was looking back, and is mediocre at best. It really fails as an origin story. I felt like we were supposed to sympathise with Arthur which doesn’t really fit the ‘Joker’, and even though I thought he was mistreated at times, I honestly lost all sympathy for him by the end. Also, if you removed the DC references, the movie would be the exact same, and no better, as the writing was weak in places and a lot of scenes dragged on a bit. What’s more, I’ve actually heard a tiny bit of speculation that ‘Joker’ was originally not going to be comic book related at all, but Todd Philips couldn’t get the funding so he put the DC references in the film as a marketing tool.
The film’s message seems to be less ‘It’s not nice to look down on the mentally ill’ and more ‘if you’re rich, not good can come of you’, which didn’t really sit well with me. Plus, the film’s reception is incredibly weird as quite a few people that praise it are people that would usually be against what it stands for. Not to mention, some of are the same people that bash the Chris Chibnall era of ‘Doctor Who’.
The performances, set design and soundtrack were great, but that unfortunately it. There are two films I’d recommend that you see, both of which I found to be better than ‘Joker’. The first of those is ‘Taxi Driver’, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro along with Al Brooks. The second of those films is ‘Parasite’, the Korean film which beat ‘Joker’ to the 2020 Academy Award for Best Picture. There is some violence in both films, but no more so than ‘Joker’.
So yeah, I’d rather stick to the Burton film, ‘The Dark Knight’, the 60’s tv series, and the animated series with the Joker. As for the sequel to this film, I won’t bother with it.
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing more of your thoughts on ‘Joker’. I’ve seen it twice, first at the cinema and second on Amazon Prime Video (I currently own the film on Prime Video as I don’t want to purchase it on DVD/Blu-ray). I can’t deny this film has its flaws and it’s not exactly a film I want to see again and again. I will have to do an in-depth review to analyse and evaluate what I think works and what doesn’t work, but it’s interesting how you’ve highlighted its strengths and certainly on its weaknesses. Thanks for recommending ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Parasite’. I don’t know if they’re the films I’d be likely to check out, but I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of seeing them. I agree with you that I would enjoy the ‘Batman’ 1989 film more with the Joker as well as ‘The Dark Knight’ and the 1960s TV series. Not seen the animated ‘Batman’ TV series yet, though I’ve heard good things about it. I wouldn’t mind seeing the sequel to ‘Joker’ called ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ when it comes out at cinemas in 2024, but I’d certainly need to be brave for it. I think I would hold back and leave it for a couple of weeks before seeing it at the cinema.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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Because of my own personal regards for how the mentally ill are often treated in films, especially when they’re somehow made into villains, it nowadays keeps me from watching films like the Joker. I know what it can quite painfully be like to be made fun of or put down when you’re mentally ill. So I admire Joaquin’s bravery in achieving for this unique role what even Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger couldn’t. To see the villain of the piece in a sympathetic light despite his or her crimes can feel wise at times. And now with Colin Farrell taking this genre a step further as the Penguin, having an originally villainous character as the main star of the piece may now be a more interesting character study to encourage reviews like yours, Tim. Thank you very much.
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See, this is where the movie falls flat for me, since the sympathy was executed so poorly. It’s often incredibly in-your-face during the movie, not to mention the fact the script can’t seem to decide whether Arthur is legitimately evil or not, like the other versions of the Joker, as it sometimes seems like he’s being treated by the script as some sort of god. That’s even if the movie wasn’t a DC one. In fact, there’s a lot of times where Arthur comes across as a bully, and any mistreatment he may have had, I stopped caring about, because he turned out to be no better.
I would go into more detail, but my full thoughts on this film will be revealed in my review of it on WF92’s Blog, releasing on the 21st of October.
Xavier
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Noted because the sympathy that’s allowed to come quite naturally works better for me too. Some villains have achieved that for me, even brought me to tears on certain occasions. In the Joker’s case, it may feel easier to see him as intentionally vicious in relation to all the incarnations that have come and gone over time.
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Hi scifimike, Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your latest thoughts on ‘Joker’. It’s fascinating how this film is interpreted nowadays compared to how it was recieved back in 2019. As I’ve stated, this isn’t a film I’d like to see again and again, particularly with its subject matter. I found it an intriguing exploration of how mentally ill man becomes a villain. It’s not really the kind of story I’d want to pursue in terms of a writer’s viewpoint, but I appreciate the attempt made to present it, even if it can be flawed at times. I’ve not seen the film lately and certainly not for checking out ‘Joker 2’ lately (though considering how that film has turned out lately, that may be considered a blessing). But I look forward to when I get a chance to re-examine the first ‘Joker’ film and judge it in a more recent context compared to how it was presented and received back in 2019. I still consider ‘Joker’ better than the first ‘Venom’ film though.
Looking forward to your review on the first ‘Joker’ film on your blog, Xavier. I’m not interested in ‘The Penguin’ series with Colin Farrell yet as I’m not a NOW subscriber and I’m not really a fan of ‘The Batman’, the film that the series is spun from.
Many thanks for your comments.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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To add to my previous comment, it seems that Todd Phillips himself has stated that Arthur Fleck isn’t the Joker, nor was ever intended to be as such.
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
Thanks for your insight into this. I’m looking forward to when you share your in-depth thoughts on ‘Joker’ when your review is posted on your blog. It seems I’ll be turning more to the 1989 ‘Batman’ film more as well as the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series featuring the Joker compared to the ‘Joker’ films with Joaquin Phoenix.
Tim 🙂
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Having thought about giving certain villains sympathy, it can work well most of the time, as long as it’s not tacked on, or as long as they’re acts of bad or outright evil aren’t forgotten or forgiven. Even then, there are some cases were villains should not be sympathised with to any degree, regardless of their past.
As for the Joker, I’ve come across a lot of people who say that the Joker should not be a sympathetic villain, which I think makes sense. The Joker always hurts, tortures and kills people out of amusement and he lies about his backstory. This is something that the Tim Burton ‘Batman’ film and ‘The Dark Knight’ both capture really well, unlike ‘Joker’.
On a side-note, whilst I haven’t and will not watch the sequel, I have read about the guy who kills Arthur at the end. People believe that he is in fact the real Joker in that universe, as he kills Arthur for giving it up, and will take it on himself. This article even calls him ‘the Joker that Arthur could never be.”
Xavier
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I forgot to put the article in my original comment, so I’ve put it here.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/10/07/the-controversial-ending-of-joker-2-explained/
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Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your latest insight on ‘Joker’ and for providing the link of what ‘Joker 2’s ending was about, especially with the guy killing Arthur Fleck at the end turning out to be the real Joker after all. To say I found the ending to ‘Joker 2’ underwhelming would be an understatement, especially when the expectation of this being a full-on Joker and Harley Quinn film is swatted aside, which is a shame, especially when the trailers featured shots of them both, including the ‘walking down the stairs’ moment, didn’t end up in the sequel film.
Now that I’ve seen both ‘Joker’ films, it’ll be interesting to explore them in in-depth reviews, particularly when the first one has been re-evaluated compared to its reception back in 2019.
Many thanks for your comments.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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