The movie Joker, is not for the faint hearted.
If I have to summarise my feelings in one sentence then it would be this – I was very disturbed, cringed multiple time and was very uncomfortable.
What added more to the feelings is that I was not watching this in India but in Jakarta, Indonesia where unlike India there are no intervals. Hence I did not get the break (the think Indians are accustomed to) to recuperate at any point in time.
All things said, I cannot stop talking about Joaquin
Phoenix, the lead protagonist in the movie – Arthur Fleck aka Joker. There is no scene where is is not visible, he takes over you, he takes control of your mind, a few minutes into the movie and you have no clue if you are inside his mind or he is inside yours! Ya, scary. Goosebumps I tell you.
Phoenix, the lead protagonist in the movie – Arthur Fleck aka Joker. There is no scene where is is not visible, he takes over you, he takes control of your mind, a few minutes into the movie and you have no clue if you are inside his mind or he is inside yours! Ya, scary. Goosebumps I tell you.
Arthur suffers from a condition where he tends to laugh uncontrollably but it almost looks like he is crying along with laughter, mixed feelings (Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), or emotional incontinence, is a type of emotional disturbance characterized by uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing, or other emotional displays. PBA occurs secondary to a neurologic disorder or brain injury). The way he does it, it does not look like acting. Not only acting, the way he lost weight (24kgs, just for this movie) to portray Arthur’s physical appearance is mind boggling, there is a scene where the camera zooms into him from the behind and he almost looks like a zombie/alien. In many other scenes his body is seen as if it has no muscle and only bones are visible (skeleton with ribs but a thin skin wrapped around it). Phew, dedication.
The movie is a phycological thriller, there is suspense, thrill and the anticipation of what Joker will do next and where exactly is this story really going. So much so that I was very very uncomfortable by the end, thinking of something unthinkable would happen. So much so of how Joker grabbed my attention, and how.
The movie is based in the 70’s/ 80’s in the Batman city of Gotham, where the economy is going thru a downturn and Arthur is a wannabe StandUp Comedian but he has not really tried as much (when the camera zooms into his diary, he has written a powerful statement – “the worst thing about mental illness is that people expect you to behave like you don’t have one”), once when he tries standUp, his video goes viral and a late night show host picks on him, things take a different turn from here on, you need to watch it to feel it. Mind you, I said, you need to watch it to feel it, FEEL IT.
I highly recommend Joker if you can handle emotional drama, uncomfortably emotional story line. Go for it!
Tip: Do not take kids to this movie, do not sit around talkative people.
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