A considerable achievement, if not quite the instant classic claimed, this bleakly comic, viciously dark plunge into the soul and (regrettably pat) origin/backstory of Batman nemesis Joker, was hardly to be expected from director/co-writer Todd Phillips after his unfortunate HANGOVER sequels. (Along with a general reluctance to take Comic Book Pics seriously, those flat sequels helping to explain initially mixed Stateside reception, before critical perception turned decisively in its favor abroad, boomeranging back for the yr-end awards circuit.) Gaunt & dangerously off-balance, like a volcano about to implode, Joaquin Phoenix restores his commercial viability, his talent never in doubt, after more than a decade of projects that disappointed in one of those two areas. Set in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, with story beats lifted off Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER/’76 and KING OF COMEDY/’82, even Robert De Niro to play counterpoint, the film juxtaposes a citywide apocalypse with personal meltdown as Joker loses his psychosomatic mood-inhibiting pills and grip on the framework of mother-fed lies that supported his circumscribed life, giving in to an escalating inner-turmoil of evil. And if too many narrative building blocks don’t click (a pretty pickup 20 years younger?; employment with Tourette's Syndrome as kiddie clown?; a live tv booking during a citywide crisis?; junior exec 'bros' singing Stephen Sondheim a cappella on the subway?), the sum proves greater than the parts. Now just worry about the inevitable sequel. We know how Phillips does with those.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Ironic that Scorsese, on something of a crusade against Comic Strip films being taken seriously, is so strenuously referenced on this ultra-serious Comic Book movie.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: While De Niro/Scorsese references play on the surface: underneath, lots of James Cagney/WHITE HEAT/’49 in here. Giggles & violence, loss of control, mother fixation, explosive finale; and with Phoenix only an inch or two taller than the famously short Cagney. Heck, even a dance down a flight of stairs, a Cagney speciality, though not in WHITE HEAT. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/06/white-heat-1949.html
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