'Joker' deserves Academy praise, makes relevant commentary
Director Todd Phillips’s “Joker” stood out at this year’s Academy Awards show, as it was the only film nominated for 11 different awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography, and won the well-deserved Best Actor award.
Joaquin Phoenix stars in this melancholic thriller as Arthur Fleck, who essentially becomes known as “Joker,” the well-known arch-nemesis of vigilante Batman. The DC Comics film is set in Gotham City when Bruce Wayne is a kid and the Joker is just beginning a life of crime.
Phoenix not only emotionally transformed himself into this character but also lost 52 pounds to fit the part, according to Vanity Fair. Phoenix more than merits this Academy Awards win and even attributed his performance to his “favorite actor” Heath Ledger during his Screen Actors Guild Awards acceptance speech. Ledger also won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of the Joker.
As the film plays out, we see Phoenix’s character develop from an uncomfortable, aspiring comedian, the very same psychopathic “Joker” that Ledger played in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 “The Dark Night.”
The connection between the two films is quite fantastic. In “Batman Begins,” the first film of the 2005 trilogy, we are introduced to a rioting Gotham City. This is the same state that the “Joker” left it in. Not to mention, “Joker” mirrors the same way that Thomas Wayne and his wife were killed, which we see during flashbacks in “Batman Begins.”
“The Dark Knight” is the third greatest movie of all time behind “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Godfather,” according to IMDB. It’s no surprise that a movie that delves deeper into the former’s storyline would be a success too.
Many would rather have seen Greta Gerwig nominated for the snubbed “Little Women,” rather than Phillips for “Joker.” Even though Gerwig was definitely slighted, “Joker” is unlike any of the films up for recognition this year. It deserved to be nominated for the 11 categories and should have additionally won Best Adapted Screenplay. The pathology-centered film uses a unique dialogue that subtly weighs in on a widespread controversy in today’s political debates.
The movie starts a conversation on the complicated relationship between gun access and mentally ill individuals, which is especially relevant given our political climate.
Phillips sheds a much needed light on the mentally sick and less fortunate people in our country. The experiences of a grown man who faced a sadistic childhood and is forced to reside in corrupt living conditions mirrors a life that many Americans live in 2020.
The film portrays such a realistic perception of what goes on in the mind of a psychiatric oddball.
At the start of the film, we meet Arthur, an awkward and shy clown who struggles severely with mental illness. After Gotham City cuts social services from his budget, Arthur is left with no welfare or a way to be prescribed his seven different medications.
Due to Arthur’s inability to control his laughter and his vulnerable aura, he’s constantly made fun of by strangers passing by. Getting his hands on a gun and growing tired of malicious comments and getting beat up in alley ways, he retaliates against three young adults who chose to victimize him on the subway and make fun of his clown costume.
After murdering the men, we begin to see Arthur’s awkward personality turn into one of a sociopath’s on the verge of a killing spree. Without a shred of guilt on his conscience, Arthur’s subway killings strike a movement in Gotham City, stimulating hatred against the rich.
“Joker” has rightfully earned so many Academy Awards nods for its accurate depiction of the mentally ill in society as well as its outstanding artistry. With its gloomy cinematic tone, plot-twisting screenplay, talented acting and dramatic directing, “Joker” is 2019’s film to watch.
