Joker

Last night I went to a Thursday preview of Joker and I thought it was as brilliant as it was disturbing.  Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a mentally ill young man who suffers from a condition where he laughs uncontrollably in inappropriate situations.  He is a clown for hire during the day and an aspiring comedian at night who feels alienated from everyone around him.  He feels that he has been rejected by his mother, his colleagues, a would-be girlfriend, his social worker, and a society that values the wealthy over the less fortunate.  After he is attacked on the subway by a group of wealthy young men who are provoked by his clown costume and his laughter, he brutally kills them.  This starts a series of riots where people dressed as clowns attack the wealthy and it also awakens something inside Arthur who begins taking revenge against everyone who has hurt him.  His killing spree culminates on a TV talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro, in a nod to The King of Comedy), a comedian who ridicules him by playing footage of his disastrous routine at a comedy club.  Arthur eventually becomes a cult hero for the less fortunate of Gotham City with unforeseen consequences involving the wealthy Wayne family.  This is a thought-provoking condemnation of a society that fails to protect the vulnerable and it is upsetting to watch, particularly because of the tension that builds and builds as Arthur descends into a madness that feels inevitable.  Phoenix is absolutely brilliant in this physically and emotionally demanding role.  As much as I was repulsed by the violence of Arthur's actions, Phoenix actually made me empathize with the character and that left me feeling incredibly unnerved.  It is a performance that I will definitely not soon forget.  The cinematography is striking with an incredibly dark and gritty tone that calls to mind Martin Scorsese's best films of the 1970s and the score by Hildur Gudnadottir is haunting.  I don't know if I can recommend something that left me feeling so traumatized but it is one of the best movies of the year.