What: “Joker”
Who: Directed by Todd Phillips. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Robert DeNiro, Frances Conroy, Bret Cullen and Zazie Beetz.
Rated R.
Running time: 121 minutes.
When: Opens Friday, Oct. 4.
Where: Area theaters.
Grade: B+.
This is a public service announcement. Be warned. “Joker,” despite its roots, is not a comic book or superhero movie. It has more in common with Martin Scorcese’s “Taxi Driver” and “King of Comedy” than anything in the DC Universe.
“Joker” is a psychological profile of one man’s descent into homicidal hell. Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a struggling party clown and a delusional, yet aspiring stand-up comic. He lives in a small apartment in Gotham City with his aged, ailing mother played by Frances Conroy.
Fleck is on seven kinds of medication for his mental health. Or rather his mental health problems. Things go south for Fleck in rapid progression. He gets mugged by teen street hooligans while on the job. His medical benefits are dropped. He loses his party clown gig for dropping a gun on the floor while entertaining kids at a children’s hospital. Three rich, drunk, young Wall Street types attack him on the subway for a lark. It all becomes too much. He shoots his three attackers, killing them all.
Arthur Fleck has become officially unhinged. The Joker is born.
Phoenix’s all-in performance is brilliant and disturbing. It is brilliant because it is so viscerally deranged. Oddly, Phoenix’s dance segments in the film, of which there are several, are inspired and a thing of beauty to behold. His choreographer should be given extra credit. They provide the otherwise gritty and gruesome story some narrative air.
Director Todd Phillips walks the fine line between cinematic realism and comic book-style origin story.
Phillips and Phoenix owe a huge debt of gratitude to the characters of Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin, both played by DeNiro, first created by Scorsese in the aforementioned movies “Taxi Driver” and “King of Comedy”.
“Joker” is no popcorn/date movie. It’s not even really for comic book kids. This is a stark fable for our failed modern society where the idea of making America great again is a gag that only the Joker could find funny.
