![]() The shift from one sort of music to the other marks the transition from Arthur’s tragic life of affliction to the Joker’s embrace of carefree nihilism, which more than hints at the entertainment value of violence. The soundtrack, which combines the dark and claustrophobic score of Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir with breezy show tunes, further serves to keep the audience unsettled. The contortions of his emaciated physique, the cackling laughter at jokes no one else hears, and the alternation between pathetic vulnerability and uninhibited violence render Phoenix’s performance quite memorable. In preparation for the part, Phoenix dropped fifty pounds, studied narcissistic personality types, and learned to mimic the bodily movements of Buster Keaton and Ray Bolger, the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. ![]() Phoenix delivers a mesmerizing performance. It is in one sense a slow but inevitable development yet, in another sense, it comes in a series of abrupt explosions. The film does a magnificent job of pacing the emergence of the Joker. For example, Wayne’s reference to “clowns” could be seen as a right-wing slighting of the unemployed or as a Hillary Clinton-esque mockery of “deplorables.”Īt any rate, Arthur’s afflictions are merely the occasions or prods or fiery pokers to unleash the wrath within. They are all open to variant interpretations. The film’s presentation of the origins of the Joker’s persona appeals to so many possible causes that it is hard to take any in particular seriously. Early on, the film underscores the fact that the Joker is fatherless not long after that issue is raised, questions surface about the Joker’s mother, with whom he has lived all his life and over whom he dotes affectionately. Yet the two bond over the fact that the government, which is cutting back on health-care services that will deprive him of his meds and her of a job, is indifferent to real people. He sees a therapist whose questions and advice seem nothing more than perfunctory. He is mocked by co-workers and assaulted by young thugs. The film depicts him as the victim of multiple types of abuse. The focus of the film is the story of how Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a loner who lives with his mother (Frances Conroy) and harbors a baseless aspiration to be a stand-up comic, becomes the Joker. The Joker unwittingly becomes a kind of hero for the disaffected mob. ![]() In the retelling here, he’s a ruthless politician who calls people who haven’t made something of themselves “clowns.” He thus motivates a sort of populist rebellion, with protestors donning clown masks. In the standard narrative, Bruce Wayne’s father is a wealthy philanthropist who cares for the underprivileged. In conjunction with the development of the Joker backstory, the film re-imagines the Wayne family. It is certainly not, as Phillips has described it in rejoinders to critics, a film whose realistic presentation of bloodshed is instructive about the nature of violence. In the end, however, it is a film full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. In its composition of individual scenes and in Phoenix’s performance, the Joker is quite impressive. Because of scenes of graphic violence and because it is a film about a character whose own violence inspires violence, Joker, directed by Todd Phillips (best known for the Hangover trilogy) and starring Joaquin Phoenix, is one of the most controversial films in recent years. ![]()
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