Bill Camp – Tripping Through Gateways

Frankly, companies do not care about you. Amazon does not care about you. And chemical companies really do not care about you. And Dark Waters is about the fight to not just expose this to the world, but to hold polluters accountable for the destruction they have caused.

Dark Water is a legal drama that somehow manages to pace itself like some sort of action movie. It does not spend a lot of time establishing Ruffalo’s Rob Bilot. He is a lawyer and has a family, and quickly he finds a farmer, Wilbur Tennant, in his office demanding his help. Wilbur is certain that Dupont chemicals have been destroying the earth and cattle of his farm.

Hesitant at first Bilot does a little research…it does not take long for him to suspect Tennant is on to something. His firm is unsure at first, as they normally defend companies like Dupont. But as time passes and information comes in that seems more damning, top people in the firm start to share Bilot’s conviction.

One of the most effective aspects of this film is how they sell the paranoia and demoralizing nature that can be part of challenging the status quo. In one scene, a man Bilot believes he could trust tells him he is sending all their research. It is so many boxes, as they pull away it feels defeating. It is clear they were inundating Bilot with so much they hoped he would give up or never be able to process it all and therefore miss something.

Dark Waters spans over a decade, and sometimes the time jumps greatly between scenes. This method of transition lulls the viewer a bit as you kind of expect maybe jumping a couple years here and there…and then around 2006, the screen stays dark as the title card jumps year by year.

Mark Ruffalo gives a great performance and you see the years of not getting justice take their toll, the fear that he and his family are in danger.

Dark Waters got kind of overlooked last year, but it is worth locating and watching.

This review is going to focus on the movie itself…the final product. I will be including a post soon that gets into the controversies. But most of my issues with the Joker are, in fact, not with the film itself. They are with the director and how he has reacted to the controversies with the movie.

The Joker is a character with a long history, both in print and film. He is, really, nearly as popular as his great nemesis Batman. Of all of the comic book villains, it was always likely that he would get the movie treatment as “the star”.

Enter Todd Phillips, of Old School and the Hangover fame and Joaquin Phoenix with a decidedly retro take. Set in a pre-Batman Gotham City, Arthur Fleck is a man who is struggling with his own darkness and delusions. He wants to believe he is here to bring joy and happiness, but every day pushes him further into believing this world is too far gone. It has lost its way and people treat each other terribly, society favors the rich and the rich don’t care about the rest of us. And yet, at times, this just seems like a cover that Fleck uses to fool himself.

It is after committing an act of self defense that sets off the city pitting the citizens against each other that he starts to just give up and tumble towards the darkness. And it is indeed a dark tale. The Joker becomes a cult hero to the oppressed citizens of Gotham, used to fight back against economic injustice. Citizens wear clown masks and paint their faces in solidarity with the mysterious “vigilante” who stood up to the 1%.

The cinematography of the film is amazing. There are so many beautifully dark and unnerving shots framed in this film. It all feels very late 70’s Scorcese grit. It is hard to turn away. And yet, at times, you really want to. Phoenix gives an impressive performance as Fleck. He is constantly unnerving (much like the best moments of Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight). There are scene that are shocking and scenes that are genuinely scary.

While Phoenix carries the film, The Joker has an excellent supporting cast as well. While largely a stand alone, a few of the moments that kind of bring the film down a little are connections to Batman. It is not the mere presence of the Wayne family, but rather certain ways they are used.

The film is also struggling at times with how it wants us to perceive the Joker. He is clearly dangerous, and flat out commits murder, but he also is treated as an anti-hero.

Overall, however, this is a very good movie. It is not as groundbreaking as some want to make it out to be (It is literally “what if Scorcese made Taxi Driver, but with the Joker, instead of Travis Bickle). But the cinematography and the performances definitely make for a challenging but engaging watch.

Tag: Bill Camp

Poison in the Well (Dark Waters, 2019)

The Cruelest Joke (Joker, 2019)