Joker

Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker follows struggling comedian (and part-time clown) Arthur Fleck as he attempts to find his place within a world that increasingly wants nothing to do with him. It’s clear immediately that Phillips, working from a script written with Scott Silver, is looking to deliver a low-key and almost aggressively gritty character study, as the movie, for the bulk of its admittedly overlong running time, explores the ongoing (and uniformly grim) exploits of Phoenix’s mentally-unhinged figure and the impact his progressively antisocial antics have on the various figures around him (including Zazie Beetz’s sympathetic neighbor and Frances Conroy’s demanding mother). And although Phillips has peppered the movie’s midsection with a handful of electrifying sequences (eg Arthur confronts three bullies on the subway), Joker does suffer from a meandering second act that seems to consist entirely of set-pieces detailing Arthur’s various confrontations and humiliations (ie it’s all a little repetitive, to be sure). The let’s-get-on-with-it-already vibe persists right up until the picture segues into its thoroughly engrossing final stretch, which revolves around Arthur’s inevitable transformation into the infamous (and iconic) title character – with the end result a lamentably erratic endeavor that nevertheless fares better than most comic-book-inspired releases and benefits substantially from a seriously (yet typically) spellbinding performance by its star.

*** out of ****