Joker - 2019 film review

When it comes to books and films about superheroes and supervillains, I tend to take them in small doses. Too many of them I find unable to get excited about, but every now and then they provide interesting escapism. I'd read good things about Joker, the 2019 film about the character from the Batman universe, and so I decided to give it a go. And I'm glad I did.

I first came across the Joker as a child, in the long-ago TV series in which he was played by Cesar Romero, and for some reason the character has stuck in my memory. So I was interested to see what Joaquin Phoenix would make of the role. He's a very good actor and evidently the idea was to turn traditional ideas for a movie about comic book characters on their head. That is, I think, a key reason why I found this film so interesting.

This is an origin story that seems to have very little connection to the Batman stories (although I have no expertise at all in them, or in the Batman films), but a young Adam Wayne does feature. Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a mentally troubled individual whose rotten treatment by society leads him inexorably towards becoming a deranged criminal.

There has been some debate about whether the film glorifies criminality and violence. I understand why some people think it might, but I don't think it does. It's more an attempt to get inside the mind of a disturbed person. Difficult to do, but the combination of a strong screenplay by director Todd Phillips and Scott Silver and an Oscar-winning performance by Phoenix makes the film compelling to watch, even if this isn't your usual cup of tea. So now I'm wondering whether to give the sequel a look. Reviews have been very mixed, but apparently it does feature 'What the World Needs Now' and 'Close to You' on the soundtrack, so surely it can't be all bad...