5 Movies You Should Watch Instead of Joker
I didn't want to write about this film.
What could I say that hadn't already been said?
Joker was one of my most anticipated movies of the year, and while I still entered Pittsburgh's Manor Theatre with an excitement unlike my countless other trips to the cinema, I couldn't help but feel like I was just getting something over with.
The film's hype began as a genuine response to an all-time great character getting his own cinematic portrait, but quickly devolved into hyperbolic paranoia about a film inspiring violence, inceldom, and hate. What mainstream media outlets fail to understand, or perhaps do but simply do not care, is that films like Joker are not to blame for the despicable acts of violence committed across America each year. Rather, these outlets perpetuate such violence by plastering real killers' faces on television in the wake of such atrocities. Worse, they deflect such an accusation by shifting the blame onto something like Joker.
Nowadays, if you don't have an opinion on a film before it is even released, you're late. The media frenzy surrounding Joker proved so nauseating and unnecessary, I ultimately couldn't wait to watch the film and be done with it.
Hilariously, all of this media attention relies on the assumption that the film is actually any good. And while Joker proves to be entertaining studio fare, it fails in several areas. Quite honestly, I can understand the concern people have about this movie only because its writing is so lazy and heavy-handed that its surface-level messaging will likely strike a chord with a few disillusioned white men. Of course, any violence that occurs in the wake of Joker's release is due to a number of factors, but the script here is so sloppy and so poor that whatever it is trying to say will almost certainly be misconstrued in various circles.
And as a huge comic book nerd, I was most disappointed by the film's failure to engage with its source material in any meaningful way. This movie isn't really about the Joker at all. Sure, we get Arthur Fleck, who may or may not become the Joker we have come to know since the character's creation in 1940, but nothing Arthur says or does seems to have any relationship to what has come before this film. I'm all for reinventing, but certain narrative decisions betray the very fiber of the Joker's character and establish an entirely different universe that I'm not even sure would give way to a character like Batman.
Joker is much more interested in its obvious influences, including Scorsese greats like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. The latter just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite films. So why didn't I love Joker all the same for taking inspiration from a film that means so much to me?
Well, because that inspiration means shit. The relationship between Joker and the films that so heavily influenced it is incredibly transparent. Joker doesn't engage with these films so much as it mimics them. And for as much as I enjoy comic book movies and big-budget fare, Joker seems to mark a low point in American cinema where we need not innovate so long as we can slap successful formats on top of a major previously established IP and call it something new.
I want to make it clear that I had fun with Joker. Joaquin Phoenix gave a chilling performance that will not escape my mind anytime soon. But its implications and its flaws are too disappointing for me to ignore.
Anyway, I don't see much point in identifying a theme in Joker and unpacking it as I do with so many other films. Instead, here are five films you should watch instead of, or at least after, seeing the Joker.
The King of Comedy
Sure, Joker takes plenty influence from Scorsese's Taxi Driver, but a less popular Scorsese work has a large presence in Joker, and it just so happens to be my all-time favorite film. The King of Comedy does more to unpack the psychology of the Joker than the film ABOUT the Joker could ever hope to do. Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is an intriguing character, but his total lack of charisma is an odd choice. De Niro's Rupert Pupkin delivers the exact kind of psychotic charisma we've come to expect from the Joker, and Scorsese masterfully uses both cinematography and editing to complicate our understanding of Pupkin. Todd Phillips attempts similar misdirects and manipulations in Joker, but he isn't sure if he's making a big-budget studio film or a mid-range art film. And like I said earlier, these are mere imitations of Scorsese's efforts. Imitation without understanding of intent is meaningless. So, any interpretations of Joker that render it as postmodern and complex as The King of Comedy are ultimately making excuses for lazy, incomplete filmmaking. The King of Comedy is exactly what Joker should have been.
You Were Never Really Here
Perhaps the most damning thing about Joker is that it's not even the best Taxi Driver copycat that Joaquin Phoenix has been in. Lynne Ramsay crafted a much more unsettling, powerful, and sympathetic character study of a man descending into violence and madness with 2017's You Were Never Really Here. In a career full of mesmerizing performances, this might be Phoenix's best, and it's almost a shame that he'll likely get recognized for his turn as the Joker while being largely ignored for his turn here as Joe. Of all the films on this list, this may be my strongest recommendation only because it highlights exactly what Joker could have been with more capable writing and direction.
Batman: The Killing Joke
You want a real Joker origin story? Go watch this adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal graphic novel. The Killing Joke erroneously tacks on a Barbara-Gordon-centric first half, but once this film gets into its source material, it is practically perfect. And why wouldn't it be? The film brings together the ultimate Batman-Joker duo in Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Hamill's laugh remains the greatest Joker laugh of all time, and hearing him deliver some of the graphic novel's iconic lines is a cinematic treat. In just under an hour and a half, The Killing Joke digs deeper into the Joker's origin and psychology than Joker comes close to doing in a bloated two hours.
Frat House
Todd Phillips may be a rather underwhelming narrative director, but his documentary work is surprisingly impressive. Phillips clearly has an interest in interrogating masculinity, and while his narrative films tend to fail because he loves his troubling subjects a bit too much, Frat House suggests a different perspective. The film explores four different fraternities at two college campuses in the spring of 1998. It is equal parts hilarious and horrifying, and actually works to both complicate and undermine its hypermasculine subjects. The film has since been accused of staging several events, which may be true, but documentaries are inherently subjective and constructed, so the film still works regardless of its purported accuracy.
The Dark Knight
Well, duh. If you want to watch a live-action Joker, stick with the late Heath Ledger. Phoenix is very good in Joker, but as I said in my intro, he is barely playing the iconic villain. Ledger's Joker feels faithful to the decades-old character, yet also adapts to a new age.
Joker also made clear to me something about The Joker that I never quite realized. The character is clearly beloved, so much so that he received his own solo film! But The Joker, like any great villain, is great because of his counterpart. The Joker without Batman is nothing, just as Batman without Joker is nothing. The Dark Knight, as well as The Killing Joke, effectively explores the relationship between these rivals and enriches both characters as a result.
Joker makes some half-baked attempts to pit the Joker against the Waynes, and Batman as a result, but they are not fully realized enough to remind us what we love about this character so much. With so many other better options out there, this is the rare time I'd recommend NOT going to the theater and watching a classic instead.