What’s wacky, woke and cast like an indie movie? Answer: this brilliant Batman reboot. Clearly, director and co-writer Matt Reeves trusts audiences to recognise that small (although not short - it’s three hours long) is beautiful.
Fawned-over and fabulously rich orphan Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) is addicted to dressing up in a leather cape and pointy-eared mask, so he can spend his evenings picking on street punks. He seems to relish the disgust his (bizarre, to be fair) costume arouses amongst Gotham’s political elite, but is oblivious to the real corruption in the city. His eyes are opened by a series of gruesome killings orchestrated by a shadowy word-puzzle fiend and whistleblower, The Riddler (Paul Dano).
In order to get closer to The Riddler, Batman joins forces with resourceful nightclub waitress Selina (Zoe Kravitz), who has her own beef with Gotham’s fat cats. Soon skeletons are tumbling out of closets and even the reputation of Bruce’s philanthropist father takes a dive. Bruce’s wealth, instead of being an asset, binds him to the city’s heart of darkness. Can Bruce/Batman help idealistic mayoral candidate Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) stop the rot?
There’s a lot of plot, but for almost the entire running time, I was amused, intoxicated and shocked. Though some punches are pulled, this “young Batman” yarn is definitely not canon.
And the performances are superb. Pattinson spends the majority of the movie in the mask but does wondrous things with his blue eyes. He allows us to see that Bruce is immature and spoilt, while also intelligent, emotionally wounded and full of self-doubt. Basically, Hamlet in a balaclava. Dano, too, is breathtakingly intense and nuanced. It was rumoured this film’s version of Batman would have a Kurt Cobain vibe, yet it’s Dano who channels the Nirvana singer. The Riddler - aka soft-voiced, brazenly geeky iconoclast Edward Nashton – is the frayed anti-hero we can’t help but warm to.
Kravitz is also glorious. Androgynous, tough and tiny, the actress plays Selina as a kind of artful dodger, one attracted to “strays” (she’s extremely close to her fellow waitress Annika, whom she calls “baby”). Selina matter of factly slips into her Catwoman gear; she’s sexy whatever she’s wearing, but never feels like a “babe”. For so many reasons, it’s easy to imagine the character becoming a LGBTQ+ icon.
Equally magnetic are John Turturro as mob kingpin Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham’s fetid junkie DA, Gil Colson, Jeffrey Wright as Police Commissioner James Gordon, Barry Keoghan, an inspired choice as an Arkham Asylum inmate, and Colin Farrell as the schlubby, whip-smart gangster Oswald Cobblepot, patiently waiting for the chance to make his mark. Cobblepot, evolving into the Penguin but not yet fully-fledged, gets lots of funny lines. He’s far cattier than Selina and totally deserves his own spin-off.
So is Reeves’ Batman aesthetic original? That’s the wrong question. In a series of pacy, hauntingly beautiful set-pieces, homage is paid to David Fincher’s Se7en and Zodiac. I’m guessing Reeves also worships Steve McQueen’s underrated, under-seen gem, Widows, and it’s a strength, rather than a weakness, that The Batman couldn’t exist without Todd Phillips’ super-villain masterpiece, Joker, or the crime-connected movies of Martin Scorsese.
It’s routinely acknowledged that Scorsese’s dazzling, and dazzlingly scuzzy, New York stories have shaped the modern DC landscape. Though Scorsese famously believes that superhero movies “aren’t cinema”, the MSCU (Martin Scorsese cinematic universe) has been mirrored with such skill by the likes of Phillips and now Reeves, that the 79-year-old director has become integral to the phenomenon he despises.
One of these days, Scorsese is going to admit defeat and allow that the best superhero movies are as good as any other immersive drama. Perhaps The Batman will be the straw that breaks Marty’s back. One of the most audacious films of the year, this shouldn’t be seen as a riposte to Spider-Man: No Way Home. The DC v Marvel conflict is a phoney war. No Way Home and The Batman are on the same side.
One last thing. Reeves’ movie, which contains so many clues and riddles, even finds time to comment on the appeal of puzzles. A note to Wordle fanatics: The Batman will make sense of your current addiction and the emotional darkness which descends when you realise that, for the next 24 hours, you’ve got nothing to “solve”.
Truly, this is an epic for our times.
175mins, cert 15
