Rev iews
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 74 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
JOKER:
NIKO^ TAVERNI
SE/WA
RN
ER^ BROS.^ EN
TERTAI
NM
ENT.^ MA
RRI
AGE:^ NETFLIX.Film
piling up, attracting a plague of “super-rats,”
while fire-sale signs line the depressed retail
streets. Arthur is first seen trying on a smile
and then a frown, a tear streaking his white
clown makeup before he heads for work carry-
ing an “Everything Must Go” discount sign for
a struggling business. He’s jumped by a group
of hoodlums who steal his sign and beat him.
One symptom of Arthur’s mental illness
is a kind of ha-ha Tourette’s, which prompts
him to laugh uncontrollably, often at awkward
moments; he carries a card reading “Forgive
My Laughter.” This has contributed to his
reputation as a freak at his job and pretty
much confines his social circle to his mother.
When a colleague slips him a handgun to
protect himself, Arthur starts showing a
little more spark. This manifests in the first
of several mesmerizing sequences of shirt-
less dance, the actor’s dramatic weight loss
for the role giving him a reptilian look. Later
those moves will become almost balletic as he
celebrates his first kills in a subway restroom.
Some of the best moments of Phoenix’s highly
physical performance are the transformative
interludes in which Arthur applies his makeup
and later dyes his hair, becoming the Joker.
Stitching their original supervillain gen-
esis narrative into the classic Batman world,
Phillips and Silver introduce a backstory
involving the wealthy Wayne family, Penny’s
history as their employee and Arthur’s grow-
ing resentment toward them. The movie’s
chief fascination, though, is Arthur’s steady
disconnection from reality, as illustrated by
his projection of a relationship with the cool
single mom down the hall (Zazie Beetz).
What’s so compelling about the title role
is that we’re encouraged to feel sympathy for
the Joker even as he’s turning into a homi-
cidal maniac. Watching Arthur exult as the
crime wave crescendos is a chilling spectacle
illustrating what all the abuse and marginal-
ization he’s been subjected to have wrought.
Phillips, a long way from the Hangover
trilogy, keeps the pacing satisfying over two
hours, modulating the peaks and climactic
builds with assurance. Cinematographer
Lawrence Sher gives the city grubby textures
and rich hues, while Hildur Gudnadóttir’s
brooding score further darkens the mood.
But this is Phoenix’s film, and he inhabits it
with an insanity by turns pitiful and fearsome
in a performance that’s no laughing matter.portrait — and it’s arguably the best Batman-
adjacent movie since The Dark Knight.
Joker also is an homage to another Scorsese
title, The King of Comedy — with Robert De
Niro playing the host of a late night show,
Live With Murray Franklin, on which Phoenix’s
party clown and aspiring comedian, Arthur
Fleck, dreams of appearing. Arthur tunes in
to the show nightly with his mother, Penny
(Frances Conroy), in their dingy apartment,
drifting early on into a fantasy in which he’s
plucked from the audience to be embraced by
Murray on-camera. Arthur even rehearses his
couch banter at home, Rupert Pupkin-style.
Toward the beginning of the movie, news
reports announce that a strike has left trashJoaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a marginalized,
mentally disturbed clown for hire who transforms into the
havoc-wreaking vigilante of the title.The clown prince of crime is alive and mentally
unwell in Gotham City in Todd Phillips’ grip-
pingly atmospheric supervillain origin story,
Joker. While a never-better Joaquin Phoenix
paints on the famed maniacal smile with his
own blood in one memorable moment, what’s
most noteworthy about this gritty entry in
the DC canon is the pathos the superb actor
brings to a disenfranchised character.
The film is very much tethered to the super-
hero universe, but Joker also could interest
audiences who don’t care about the Hollywood
comic-strip assembly line. The smart screen-
play by Phillips and Scott Silver anchors the
story in a divided city with echoes of contem-
porary America. Built around a credible spiral
from lonely outsider to deranged killer, it’s as
much a neo-noir character study styled after
Martin Scorsese’s Ta x i D r i v e r as a supervillain
Joker
Joaquin Phoenix brilliantly reinvents Batman’s cackling archnemesis
in Todd Phillips’ dark and riveting supervillain origin story By David Rooney
OPENS Friday, Oct. 4 (Warner Bros.)
CAST Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz
DIRECTOR Todd Phillips // Rated R, 121 minutesVenice
Film
Festival