Joker (2019)
A colorful film that left me empty.
I was apprehensive about Joker when I first heard about it and, honestly, I wouldn’t have seen it had we not been reviewing all of the Oscar Nominees on The Strategic Whimsy Experiment. On the one hand, I was excited about seeing Joaquin Phoenix in this dark and interesting tale about an endlessly fascinating super-villain. The trailers provided an interesting juxtaposition of whimsy and terror and I was intrigued. But I knew this was going to be a psychologically dark and violent movie which was something that, at the end of the day, I just didn’t want to watch. So for months, I wrestled with both wanting to see and not wanting to see this film — I was quite conflicted.
There is so much that’s good about this film, especially Joaquin’s performance. He is, quite honestly, one of the best actors out there and he always delivers no matter the character he finds himself embodying at the time. He became Arthur Fleck and that transformation was stunning. I could not take my eyes off of him, though I wanted to because his appearance and portrayal were so immensely painful. There was a deep-rooted sadness within him that was infused into every word and action, no matter what the character was doing. His laugh that was somehow both a laugh and a cry, was so haunting that it pierced my core. His Oscar nomination is well deserved.
