Joker  ★★★★½

IT’S RARE that a highly anticipated film ends up exceeding expectations.

Joker doesn’t just exceed expectations, it smashes them.

This dark, complex and challenging character study is my film of 2019 to date.

As a film-goer whose favourites list is littered with ‘70s classics like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Midnight Express and Taxi Driver, I’m biased of course.

The film-makers of that era pushed the boundaries of what was considered to be mainstream entertainment with work that engulfed the audience in raw and sometimes disturbing human emotion.

We can still experience that type of muscular, visceral experience, but usually by inhabiting the arthouse circuit, cinema’s equivalent of off-Broadway, or trawling the constant flow of streaming content.

So it’s doubly unusual that DC Comics, the struggling little brother of Marvel, gave Todd Phillips and Joachim Phoenix the reins to such an important franchise spin-off.

But thank God they did.

Phillips attacks the opportunity with full-throttle energy and abandonment of commercial sensitivities, turning the Joker’s background story into a combination of Shakespearian tragedy and early Scorsese psychological thriller.

He has reached into cinema’s past to create a Joker for our time, a period in which we are forever publicly debating the power of freewill to overcome negative forces at both individual and societal levels.

Is Phillips’ Joker an inevitable by-product of a society that struggles to progress in any unified manner? A society that still too often leaves the down-trodden where they fall? A society that uses free speech to rail incoherently and equally against individualism and officialdom?

And, if a character like Joker is inevitable, how concerned should we be over his influence on those surrounding him, even those existing at the fringes of societal norms and human decency?

It’s fascinating to consider these weighty questions and Joker provides plenty of fuel to the fires of controversy.

But, as viewers wishing to also be entertained, we can compartmentalise the experience and enjoy an enthralling and exciting take on one of the most popular and enduring comic book villains.

It may be a DC origins story, but the 2019 Joker inhabits the darkest and deepest territory seen within this genre and, in Phoenix, we now have a definitive depiction of the comic book struggle between good and evil at its most raw, basic level.

It’s a stunning performance, both mental and physical, with Phoenix able to externally manifest the character’s inner turmoil through twists and contortions of his human form, seemingly without the artificial assistance of CGI.

He’s chilling, macabre, hilarious, touching, sad and dangerous, many times all of these during the one scene, effortlessly shifting between emotions and dragging us with him.

The exceptional script, arresting visuals and committed performances all round combine to ensure the audience remains on edge throughout, constantly wondering in which direction they will be taken next.

The film takes its inspiration from the graphic novel ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ which first portrayed the Joker as originally being a failed stand-up comedian.

I haven’t read the novel but assume it did not take the concept as far as the 2019 film manages to do.

Phillips sets his film in 1981, in Gotham City but long before Batman’s emergence.

The city is struggling under the weight of an economic downturn and the population is slowly starting to turn on itself; crime is increasing and so too the pressures of everyday life. The city is crying out for something, anything, that might suggest a brighter future.

Arthur Fleck is a lonely, disturbed man aged in his late-20s who works as a clown for hire and still lives with his mother Penny, played by Frances Conroy.

Through a series of events Arthur finds himself without a job, questioning his personal sense of belonging and under suspicion of committing several vigilante-style murders that have divided a community already stirring with resentment of the rich and powerful, including millionaire Thomas Wayne.

As Arthur’s personal circumstances spiral out of control he finds himself targeted on several fronts – scorned by those confronted by his personality, investigated as a potential cause of public anarchy, lauded as a lightning rod for community uprising and publicly humiliated by a man he admired and revered.

Phillips expertly brings all these threads together in a coherent narrative exploring a clash of individual rage against ideology and class.

At the centre of it all is Phoenix as Joker, a chameleon shifting shape between accidental anti-hero for the downtrodden and disenfranchised to uncontrollable psychopath intent on burning the entire city to the ground.

Previously best known for the Hangover comedy trilogy, Phillips has defied the critics to produce a formidable work.

Phoenix, one of today’s best actors, was always going to tackle this iconic role with courage, commitment and creativity.

He surpasses all previous versions of the character to create a villain for, and of, our time.