Believe the hype. No matter what you’ve heard, nothing quite prepares you for Todd Phillips’ Joker, the DC stand-alone now playing in cinemas. Despite it having no special effects, a grounded story line and a period setting, it is possibly the best film we’ve seen in the IMAX for quite some time.
Warner Bros/IMAX
Joaquin Phoenix is the titular character, the setting what looks to be early 1980s Gotham City, though the exact period isn’t given. We meet Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck in the opening scene, slowly applying clown make-up in front of a large mirror. He’s working on the streets of the city, acting as crown as an ‘everything must go’ sign-poster and sometime children’s entertainer. However, he wants for the limelight and to become a stand-up comedian – though he struggles with refining the art of making people laugh. He though, has rare condition, one which makes him laugh randomly out loud. When the city starts to fail him, his medication for his illness cut-off, Fleck’s life begins to spiral out of control – he randomly kills three Wall Street yuppies on the subway, beginning an uprising against the privileged all across Gotham, and a series of events which will eventually see him transform into the Joker of the title.
We’ve made our thoughts known on what we think about Joker in our original review. It is a film that will and, over its opening weekend, has split audiences. Hailed as a masterpiece on its debut at the Venice Film Festival, where it took home the Golden Lion award – effectively best picture, the movie is a stunning piece of work. The narrative is harrowing in places, Phillips looking to a grounded authenticity rather than outlandish special-effects driven fare that we’ve seen in the main DC universe in the movies that have arrived post the Christopher Nolan ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy, arguable Batman and company’s best cinematic outings to date. Joker has more in common with those movies than the Zack Snyder films that followed, but the stand-alone is very much a more violent, sometimes horrific, very bloody affair – one not for the faint of heart.
In this article, we’re primarily looking at the IMAX experience. One of the lowest-budgeted movies in modern superhero history, Joker is perfectly suited to the large format, its striking visuals a joy to take in on the huge screen, but the sound matching it with a fantastic cello-focused score by the outstanding composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (Chernobyl) – music which adds to the menace and underlying foreboding seamed throughout.
The violence is hard-hitting an unexpected, and is obviously much more intense and shocking when watching on a 30-foot IMAX screen. We chose to watch the film with a paying audience on opening day – one of the first evening performances with a packed-house, and the reception was palpable. I can’t remember an movie-going experience like this for quite some time. While the film’s content is absolutely polarising, and while we very much sit in the positive camp, nobody can question the technical genius on display. The score from Guðnadóttir and the cinematography from director of photography and frequent Phillips collaborator Lawrence Sher, are only enhanced by the large format.
Joker, while very much a smaller movie when compared to its fellow comic-book counterparts should absolutely be seen on the IMAX format. One way or another, a truly unforgettable experience.
Joker is now on general release.
