Joker Review — An Introspective Look at a Villain’s Descent into Madness
Joaquin Phoenix steps into the Clown of Gotham’s shoes and explores a retelling of the Joker’s history. Will Joker put a smile on your face or will it make you ask why so seriously bad?
The Clown Prince of Gotham is known as one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time. The Joker has been reprised in various TV shows and movies since his comic debut as the first Batman villain in 1940. From Joker’s first on-screen appearance in the 1966 television series, Batman, played by Cesar Romero to his latest appearance in the film, Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, he remains one of the most recognizable characters in media today.
Joker is the first look into Batman’s biggest foe’s history, giving the audience a look into the events that made him the villain they’ve become familiar with through the years. The film drops in on the life of Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man who struggles to fit in with society. His dream is to become a comedian and he believes that his purpose in life is to spread joy and laughter. As Arthur encounters hardships and obstacles in his life, he gradually becomes the notorious Joker.
The project was seen as a risk from the beginning. Director Todd Phillips, who has also directed the Hangover films and Starsky & Hutch, wanted to pursue a character study of the Joker that would be a reimagining of his past. In an interview with The Wrap, Phillips mused that the film was “a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film.”
But with the mass-shooter crisis in the United States, including the 2012 shooting in Aurora, Colorado at a premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, a few Warner Bros. employees feared that the project could potentially be dangerous. But the studio has since issued a statement, recognizing gun violence as a “critical issue” and encouraging difficult conversations to come from this film. “It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero,” Warner Bros. said in the statement.
Joker makes it clear that this is the story of a villain, not an antihero. The story is framed in a way that is sympathetic to Arthur Fleck’s circumstances, not to how he violently reacts to them. While mental illness plays a role in Fleck’s undoing, the film doesn’t rely on his unnamed disorders as the only cause of why he radicalizes himself as Joker. This film isn’t glorifying violent men or pushing those who are unstable over a tipping point. “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a filmmaker to teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong… I think if you have somebody that has that level of emotional disturbance, they can find fuel anywhere,” Joaquin Phoenix, star of Joker, told IGN.
Not only does Joker not promote violence, but the film makes the little violence it does have shocking and graphic to have an impact on the audience. Phoenix explained to SFX, “What happens in a lot of movies is that you get numb to it, you’re killing 40,000 people, you don’t feel it. While being a fictional story in a fictional world, you always want it to feel real. Everything that happens in this movie as far as violence goes, you feel it.”
Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, has the highest death count of any movie with 83,871 casualties. But it doesn’t feel like that many deaths have occurred because the film glazes over them without hesitation. The few acts of violence in Joker are brutal and disturbing, reestablishing the Joker’s actions as being morally wrong.
With Joker being more of a real-world story than a classic comic book film, the infamous character needed a new look. Costume Designer Mark Bridges chose a color scheme that was suitable for the 70s setting. Bridges also got into the mind of Arthur Fleck for subtleties that made the character more realistic. “I imagined if he ever did laundry, everything went into the washer at the same time. We made a kind of bad laundry feel to the clothing. It’s those subtle choices you can make for a character that inform the audience who they are and how they live,” Bridges told Variety. As for Joker’s new makeup, Makeup Head Nicki Lederman wanted to bridge the gap between the classic comic book character as a foundation and Arthur’s past as a clown.
The costume and makeup team weren’t the only ones focusing on transforming this new iteration of the Joker. Joaquin Phoenix researched mental illnesses, focusing on medications and how they can affect a person. Losing weight was the first effect that Phoenix focused on. He lost more than 50 pounds for the role. An important aspect of playing the Joker is perfecting an iconic laugh. Actors that have played Joker throughout the years have each perfected a laugh that is unique to them and their portrayal of the character.
To create the perfect laugh, Phoenix studied videos of people who suffered from pathological laughing, later having Todd Phillips audition his laugh to guarantee Arthur Fleck had the perfect cackle for his specific personality. “There are different interpretations as to where that laugh comes from… Either it’s a disorder, based on physical trauma that he experienced, or it’s Joker, which is the suppressed part of Arthur, trying to emerge,” Phoenix explained to the Toronto Sun.
Joaquin Phoenix’s attention to detail and commitment to the character do not go unnoticed. Within the first five minutes of the movie, the actor has already established himself as a frontrunner for the upcoming awards season. The audience feels the loneliness and desperation to fit in with society that Arthur experiences, along with the anxiety of his descent into madness. The actor makes the distinction clear between feeling sympathetic towards the circumstances that are beyond Arthur’s control, and condemning his reaction to those circumstances as immoral and evil.
The cinematography and the visuals of Joker are so beautiful and well-done. The muted color palette of the film provides the perfect backdrop to the bleak darkness of the story. The film has some iconic shots that are sure to be remembered in cinematic history, including scenes briefly shown in the film’s trailer of the Joker’s dance in a bathroom and another dance down a massive staircase. The film found a perfect way to have a realistic story with comic book undertones that refrained from becoming too cartoonish. Joker also included a subtle storyline with a beloved caped crusader that was perfectly done without being too obvious or overbearing.
Joker demonstrated that comic book stories can be beautifully done and rival art films. The story portrayed mental illness well, calling attention to those who fall through the cracks of the system, while avoiding condoning the violence in society that some people fear will be inspired by entertainment and characters like Arthur Fleck. DC Films thrives when it comes to projects with realistic perspectives on their dark, intriguing characters. Joker is a film that can appeal not only to fans of the comic books, but also to cinephiles with an eye for masterfully done films with major awards potential.
What are your thoughts about Joker? Do you think it’s deserving of the criticism it’s received from the media?
