Probably no audience knew nothing about the movie "Joker" before entering the movie theater.
Even the audience who cares little about movies, as long as they have been immersed in popular culture for long enough, can’t be ignorant of Joker, the ace villain in the Batman universe, and can’t be unfamiliar with his iconic green hair, red mouth and nerves laughing out loud. Before the release of "Joker", thanks to the popularization of "Fatal Joke" and the origin story of the clown by enthusiastic DC fans, the "Film History Joker Ranking" planned by major websites (and another whiplash of "Suicide Squad"), There is also the fourth place IMDB "Dark Knight". The audience that "Joker" faces is a group of competent prospective fans. They have long known the character of Joker, and many people can easily quote "Why So Serious". And "bad day".
The audience who cares about the movie must know that "Joker" has just won the Venice Golden Lion. As an independent work separated from the DC movie universe, this "Joker" that tells the villain's origin story is undoubtedly a milestone that cannot be surpassed in the short-term. How "Joker" revives DC and how to change the future of Hollywood is an exciting talk. Behind the scenes of this movie, director Todd Phillips has achieved an excellent arc from a directing comedy to taking back the Golden Lion. Character story, the story-rich starring Joaquin Phoenix, provides the media with enough manuscript material for a week. His past with his brother Rui Fan, the process of his being marginalized by Hollywood and returning to the pinnacle of acting, and even his romantic relationship with Rooney Mara, have all been brought out as scraps of the "Joker" movie promotion.
The expected audience has been established, and the posters and trailers will be amazed again. The poster of "Joker" is a close observation of the characters, and the drama created by precise colors and light is blown away. The clown in the comics is a pure evil symbol missing from history, but the protagonist shown in the full-blown trailer of "Joker" is a poor ordinary person with flesh and blood. The whole movie seems to be a story of returning to the role, delicate, intimate, full of emotions, and at the same time serious social research, full of tragedy and ironic reality. "It is the society that makes clowns become clowns", this conclusion has been emphasized over and over again, becoming a tacit propaganda.
The vigilance and controversy surrounding "Joker" incites violence. In 2012, the families of the victims of the shooting at the premiere of "The Dark Knight" publicly protested. Police officers patrolled the scene at many scenes on the day of the premiere, but these did not reduce the audience's enthusiasm, but increased the mystery and viewing of the "Joker" movie. Rebellious behavior.
Affixed with layers of elements and labels, "Joker" has become a cultural phenomenon that transcends the film itself. But when the audience really walks into the movie theater and sits down and enters the world of "Joker", they will find that there is nothing left except for these already advertised elements and the expected glamour.
"Joker" is like a joke with too many stalks beforehand, but it shows shyness when it is actually performed. It is like an empty skeleton, plastered with organs borrowed from others. It looks rich and full on the surface, but in reality it is poor and empty.
The two biggest problems of "Joker" are the simultaneous existence of straightforwardness and confusion . One half is too simplified and superficial, with a distrust that the audience may not understand; while the other half seems to have something to say, but cannot or dare not expand it carefully.
Role: Single-sided image of victim & lack of motivation for explanation
"Joker" is a role film with a strictly closed narrative, all bright or dark lights are shining on Arthur Fleck, a humble street clown, a failed comedian, and a mental patient who can't help laughing. He experienced being beaten by street gangsters and Wall Street elites, framed by colleagues, ignored by the rich, abandoned by the government, ridiculed by his favorite comedy host Murray, and finally chose to fight back with violence. Out of his sight, his unintentional crimes have inspired riots in the city against the rich and the government, and the image of the clown has been sublimated into a spiritual symbol that uses violence to gain a sense of existence.
Arthur Fleck's character design draws on Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" and "The King of Comedy", but "Joker" has a gap with these two works in terms of character creation. This gap is reflected in the creator's attitude towards the characters. In other words, Martin's way of looking at the protagonists of the two works is completely different from how the two characters view themselves. The audience can see that Travis is a paranoid and crazy marginal person, but Travis feels that he is a hero who saves women and eliminates the filth; Rupert feels that he is a comedy genius who does everything right, and the audience outside the screen will feel uneasy and embarrassed. . It is this difference in perception between the role and the audience that really stimulates empathy and deeper thinking.
However, the way "Joker" sees Arthur Fleck is exactly the same as the way he sees himself: a tragic victim. Arthur is not at fault, it is the world that is wrong, and as long as he simply puts society on the opposite side, all Arthur's pain has a rough direction to vent. This kind of over-simplified self-pity is dangerous. "Joker" straightforwardly opens the door to invite the audience to come in for empathy. The audience with successful empathy can plunge into Arthur's worldview without hesitation, but the rest are at a loss. Lost the proper place to stay, like the audience under the stage of a comedy show who did not understand the jokes.
For victims like Arthur, everything they care about in the first two-thirds of the film is very personal. Unlike the clown in the comics as a chaotic anarchist image, the character of Arthur is depoliticized and conceptualized. So when he sat on the guest sofa of the talk show and started speaking and accusing him as a representative of the class he was in, he felt that an important link was missing. A clown shot and killed three wealthy elder brothers, which triggered riots in the entire city. This incident itself was a violent incident that would only happen in the context of comics, and Arthur's forced sublimation in front of the camera felt groundless. Between Arthur's murders and dances, the audience fully felt the change in his mood, but couldn't receive his thoughts.
Perhaps the sense of presence is Arthur's motivation for linking his actions with society. Existence is a seemingly non-existent theme in "Joker". What Arthur longs for is to be heard and seen by others. That's why Arthur accuses social workers of not listening carefully. That's why he looks forward to the stage and imagines himself in the spotlight. Only when Murray is named will be excited by the media report, and finally stand on top of the police car and dance. But this theme is not very clear. The director seems to have used his pen and ink more in the most obvious and eye-catching passages, paying more attention to emotions than rationality. Of course, he can also say that the behavior of the lunatic does not need to be explained too much. The fault of society is a panacea, and so are mental problems.
Society: Facialized class antagonism & ambiguous position
Gotham City in "Joker" is a chaotic version of New York in 1981, with garbage and giant rats all over the streets, unemployment and the gap between the rich and the poor are getting worse. Although the visual design of the city in "Joker" is very detailed and stylized, its depiction of this society is extremely simplified and rudimentary, without any political and economic details. All the wealthy classes are designed to be hypocritical and arrogant bastards who don't care about the life and death of the people at the bottom, and deserve their sins. Could there be a more straightforward and simple way of expression than arranging a group of wealthy bastards in dresses to watch "Modern Times"?
The simple and rude class discussion in "Joker" makes people want to go back and give "Parasite" an extra half star. The point that "Parasite" is better than "Joker" is that the rich have never done obvious evil from beginning to end, but they are still punished violently. The question of "President Park's family clearly did nothing wrong" is to stimulate the audience to think about the true original sin behind the class antagonism.
But "Joker" easily made the upper class a real target. In the logic of "Joker", the host Murray is portrayed as a complete bastard. It is not a pity to die. Inviting Arthur on the show is just to mock him, but don't forget the host set by a similar person in "The King of Comedy" There is an unknown mental pressure behind people's indifference. Thomas Wayne, if he were the father of our beloved Batman aside, he would be a politician in "Joker" who knows the sufferings of the people and would say "In the eyes of us, you guys" There is nothing but a bunch of clowns." "Joker" found a good reason for all this bloody, but ignored the so-called elite Wall Street boys, who were sitting on the dirty subway like the clowns when they were shot.
Not to mention that "Joker" is a super-British comic change blockbuster that cannot be compared with the works of the author and director. Both of these works are winners of the three major film festivals.
The twisting point of "Joker" is not only the objects faced by this riot, but also the participants in this riot. Wearing clown masks, their faces were blurred, and they didn't know whether they were the really desperate people at the bottom of the mask, or the thugs who had beaten Arthur on the street. Throughout the film, Arthur has been bullied by people from all walks of life, social groups, and even people of all skin colors. He shouldn't stand for anyone, but in the end he was simply promoted as a spokesperson for the rich. If the image of the clown is forcibly borrowed by the mobs to become a spiritual leader without his knowledge or reluctance, and he is actually an individual who commits crimes for his own benefit and does not represent any group, the plot may be even more ironic and interesting.
Another vague treatment is also reflected in the attitude towards people of color. It is impossible for the audience not to notice the black female characters in this movie, the black mother who is hostile to Arthur on the bus, his gentle female neighbors in the apartment, the social worker who never listens carefully, and may even be admitted in the end. The staff killed by Cam's Joker, these black women appeared in a negative image that was not good enough for Arthur. Behind this deliberate design, the message that the character wants to convey is vague. "Taxi Driver" dared to boldly show the protagonist's racism, but "Joker" only put out a weak signal and turned to laugh at the dwarf.
In addition to the above, "Joker" is still a film that is too visual. The visual sense of "Taxi Driver" and "The King of Comedy" mentioned above is already covered with image style and storyline. In the lead actor, there must be another De Niro who has played these two films, plus some The iconic scene of making a gun with fingers. In the process of watching the clown, Joaquin Phoenix's "You Have Never Been Here" also frequently jumped out of interference. Both films have clips of the lives of Joaquin and an elderly mother, and there are even subways with very similar composition from the front. The scene of howling by. These visual perceptions, on the one hand, weaken the independence and originality of "Joker", on the other hand, they constantly remind the audience how "Joker" is inferior to these works.
Of course, the negative comments expressed above are actually only derived from disappointment under the high expectations, and they are regarded as irrational fanfare and stepping back from fanatical girls. The super high score of "Joker" is not without reason, Joaquin Phoenix's acting skills can be said to be impeccable, he will act with every protruding bone. Under his interpretation, Joker's laughter turned into a suffocating hiss in the end. Every twist and dance step he made on the steps became a part of emotion and narrative. The sound of the cello in the background carries a deep coolness that can permeate the skull. The photography and setting present a dreamy color experience at an ultra-high level.
I acknowledge the excellent production level of "Joker", recognize that Joaquin is worthy of a performance by a figurine, and also agree with the groundbreaking significance of "Joker" as a comic film. I can't even imagine how much energy the creators of "Joker" spent to persuade Warner to agree to invest in such a disturbing film in today's conservative Hollywood, which is full of remakes and series of movies.
Outside of this movie, "Joker" is leading the box office with a smile and heading for the awards season. Director Todd Phillips tells the story of how he can't make comedies in the big environment, and brings the self-pity of the film to the outside, and social networks will continue to discuss the film and everything behind it.
But I still can't like "Joker" as I expected. Just like the famous line, "I thought my life was a tragedy, but it was actually a comedy." In the eyes of the creator, "Joker" is a social issue movie that can stimulate real crimes like "Taxi Driver", but the final product is It's an old story that is somewhat empty and boring.
As a minority of viewers who were not amused by this joke, I am very happy to hear more explanations. Just don't say to me like a clown, "you can't get it".
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