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Joker (2019)
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
4K UHD Released: 1/7/2020
All Ratings out of
Movie:
Video:
1/2
Audio:
1/2
Extras:
1/2
Review by Mike Long, Posted on 1/17/2020
I can only imagine that the bean-counters at Warner Bros. are tearing their hair
out. While Marvel cranks out
hit-after-hit, the DC movies from Warner are all over the place in terms of
success. After the success of
The Avengers,
Justice League
probably seemed like a slam-dunk, but it didn’t really make a splash.
Meanwhile,
Suicide Squad
cost about half of what Justice League did and it made more money.
Stand-alone projects, such as Wonder Woman and
Aquaman
were more successful than
Batman V. Superman.
While seemingly every Marvel movie is assured to be a hit, there’s no way
of knowing which DC movie will stick.
Therefore, who would have guessed that a bizarre take on one of DC’s
biggest villains would break the box office.
Did anyone see Joker coming?
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in a world of pain.
By day, he works as a clown, spinning signs in front of failing stores.
By night, he longs to be a stand-up comedian.
He lives with his mother (Frances Conroy) is a bad neighborhood of a
desolate city. Having been a
patient in Arkham Hospital, he sees a counselor and is on medication, but he
still feels hopeless. To make
matters worse, he suffers from a form of Pseudobulbar Affect, which causes him
to laugh uncontrollably at times.
Pushed to the limit, Arthur explodes in violence.
This causes him to go into a full psychotic break, but it also unleashes
the dark personality which has been dwelling inside of him.
It also pushes him to pursue his dream of appearing on Murray Franklin’s
talk show, a move which will expose the world to the man who now calls himself
Joker.
Joker
is a film which is strange and challenging on numerous levels.
Despite the title, the story has little to do with DC Comics.
Yes, the film is set in Gotham City and yes, the Wayne family plays a
role in the plot and yes, we get to see what is arguably the origin of Batman,
but, those things aside, this is not a comic book movie.
And, it would be inaccurate to label this Joker as a super-villain.
He has no specific skills or abilities.
And the portrayal of the character in this entry definitely varies from
previous incarnations in the sense that there is no sense of camp here.
This Joker makes Heath Ledger’s portrayal in The Dark Knight look
like something from the 1960’s Batman television show.
Arthur Fleck is a new character and the distance between him and the
four-color shenanigans of the “Clown Prince of Crime” is immense.
What we get instead with Joker is a character-study of a man who was
already teetering on the brink of madness that is pushed far, far into the
abyss. There is nothing positive in
Arthur’s life, and those things which do seem promising may simply be delusions.
The film has been compared to Taxi Driver and those comparisons
are very apt. As with Scorsese’s
film, with Joker, we watch a man who has been left behind by society who
finds a sense of release in violence.
As Writer/Director Todd Phillips states in the extra features included
here, it’s when Arthur puts on a mask that he’s finally able to become his true
self.
There’s no doubt that Joker is an ambitious project.
Phillips has taken a well-known character and put a completely new spin
on him. However, the similarities
to things like Taxi Driver are unmistakable, which somewhat diminishes
the overall original feel of the project.
Having said that, it’s a rarity to see a film which focuses on the birth
of a villain and it was nice to see the origin based on mental health issues and
societal pressures and not some supernatural or mad-science incident.
Joaquin Phoenix deserves all of the praise which is being heaped on him
for this role, as he completely throws himself into the character and his
physical transformation is amazing.
Philips, best known for raunchy comedies (although The Hangover, Part 2
gets decidedly dark) shows a different side here, as he creates a depressing
world which sadly mirrors some parts of our society.
Those expecting a comic-book movie may be disappointed by Joker,
as will those looking for something completely original.
However, if you are prepared for a grim look at how violence can shape a
person and the public at-large, Joker is a journey worth taking.
Joker
nails the look of 80s New York City on 4K UHD courtesy of Warner Bros. Home
Entertainment. The film has been
letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an HEVC 2160p transfer which runs at
60 Mbps. The image is very sharp
and clear, showing no intrusive grain and no defects from the source materials.
The film has a somewhat muted look, but when the bright colors do appear
(as with Joker’s makeup), they look great.
The image is never over dark or bright.
The depth looks great and the image’s crispness delivers a very nice
level of detail. The Disc carries a
Dolby Atmos audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.5 Mbps.
The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects.
The street scenes bring us an admirable amount of surround sound, as the
noises of the city fill the speakers.
The score features many low tones that bring the subwoofer to life.
The scenes in the subway activate the entire surround spectrum creating a
real sense of space.
All of the extra features for Joker are found on the Blu-ray Disc
included in this set. “Becoming
Joker” (1 minute) plays like an artsy short, as we watch Phoenix go through the
four stages of the character. “Joker:
Vision & Fury” (22 minutes) has Phillips walking us through an overview of the
film’s concepts and ideas. The
piece opens with comments from Production Designer Mark Friedberg describing the
film’s look. From there, we move into interviews with Phoenix who talks about
his approach to the character and what inspired him.
“Please Welcome…Joker” (3 minutes) shows several takes of one shot to
illustrate how Phoenix approached the character in different ways.
“Joker: A Chronicle of Chaos” (3 minutes) is simply a reel of
still images from the film.