I'd been seeing the previews for a long time, and was intrigued. The first Joker of this series, with Joaquin Phoenix, had punched me hard with its Gotham. I knew that place. Indeed I did. They'd filmed it in my old haunts around JCNJ and EWR, I found out later.
My YouTube dashboard started flickering some negative thumbnails even as the Bagdad marquee rolled over from Beetlejuice 2, which I'd also seen. Without much hesitation, I made a beeline for the theater.
What I was thinking during the film a lot was (a) wow, I hadn't expected a musical, with dance numbers, but with Lady Gaga I should have and (b) wow, what a canvas, what a work of art, like the Dutch masters.
However, in being so arty, I think it went over the line into David Lynch territory, which gets me thinking art cinemas (Bagdad is first run mainstream) but then I think of how Lynch movies are far from obscure; they're on a spectrum.
These Joker movies have become intensely psychological. The depiction of prison life and archetypes is priceless. The court scene is likewise every court scene, every trial. In terms of drama, this movie strives towards perfection, overshoots, compensates, and so on, perfection itself never attainable, by definition.
The musical numbers are clearly "in the Joker's head" but then the Joker has a lot of time to fantasize, and as the movie gets more and more unruly and surreal, one begins to wonder if "the Joker's head" is all there is. He's living the dream as they say, and a nightmare it is, but for the bright light of a fellow soul.
So yes, it's a love story on top of all that. I might delve into what the critics didn't like about it. It's not really an action thriller. Watching it takes actual patience, as the claustrophobia of the Gotham world is oppressive. I wouldn't call it a comfortable movie. But entertaining? Absolutely.
