JOKER

US, 2019, 122 minutes, Colour.
Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler, Leigh Gill, Josh Pais, Rocco Luna, Douglas Hodge.
Directed by Todd Phillips.


Joker won the Golden Lion in Venice before its release. Critics seem to be divided. Locally, Joker was dismissed as unimportant, the Age reviewer offering a condemnation, review by derision with derogatory comments, less rather than more relevant, about director director, Todd Phillips, “brazenly low-brow� because of his Eurotrip and Hangover series. “Making a career out of manchild movies and here is another�.

It will be interesting to see how Joker fares in award nominations.

Joker is a film about mental illness, a very powerful case study of extremes in mental illness. It is hard not to feel sorry for Arthur Fleck (Joker-to-be) for much of the time, his intense introspection, the disturbing maniacal neurological laugh and his difficulty in controlling it, erupting at all the wrong moments. That laugh will be one of the main features that will stay in the memory.

But, of course, with the name Joker, it is the clown imagery and metaphor that draws us in.

The first time we see Arthur he is pulling his lips aside to grin. He is not a natural laughter clown. Then he grimaces, the sad clown. Then he looks bereft, an orphaned clown, an institutionalised clown, a medicated clown. Where he succeeds best is in some sympathetic rapport with children. Where he fails, despite his scrawly and sketchy book of jokes, his attempts to tell them, is in his embarrassing gig as a stand-up comic in the club. As his mother remarks, “don’t you have to be funny to be a comedian?�. And this is the experience, unexpectedly videoed, played for mockery on television, that leads to his downfall.

Most commentators have remembered that Robert De Niro had a similar kind of role and aspiration in Scorsese’s King of Comedy. Now, De Niro has achieved his ambitions as the TV host who is ultimately merciless to Arthur though he agrees to introduce him as Joker.

At the beginning, we might wonder whether there would be any reference to Bruce Wayne or the Wayne family. The opening up is dramatically gradual: the family, mention of the name, the chaos in Gotham city and Thomas Wayne campaigning to be mayor, then the revelation about Penny Fleck working at the Wayne Mansion, suspicions about her pregnancy, about Arthur’s paternity, issues of adoption, Arthur search for documentation and visit to the mansion, encountering Alfred and the young Bruce, and the issues of Penny herself and her obsession with Thomas Wayne and her illusions. But we don’t expect the sequence where Arthur ultimately, and shockingly, deals with his mother.

Which brings up the question of violence. While we see Arthur/Joker in action, we have to remember the hardships of his upbringing and their uncertainties, the mental state of his mother, his own illness and neurological laugh, the sequence where the young men bully him in the street, the yuppie mockery in the subway train, the injustice of his boss firing him, the mockery from the other clown who gave him the gun – which means that Arthur becomes a ‘punishing clown’. A touch of kindness to the dwarf who never mocked him. But then, calling Murray to account on television, punishment by execution.

Yes, this is an “Origins� story, not the usual origins of the superheroes but rather the origin of Batman’s most notorious foe – which reminds us of Jack Nicholson’s maniacal glee and, more deadly notorious (and Oscar-winning) hostile madness of Heath Ledger. Of course, we are not meant to identify with Arthur’s and Joker’s increasing brutality, that would be a sign of mental illness. Rather, Gotham city is decaying, and Arthur is part of that decay.

Of course, Arthur/Joker is impact is in the writing, the director and his use of intense close-ups and framing, but the tribute must go to Joaquin Phoenix, emaciated, quietly and then openly deranged, lacking any sense of humour though desiring it, wanting an identity, donning make up (to cover Arthur, a new identity), wearing masks to hide but running the risk of their being torn off his face and his being recognised. It is a significant performance.

Joker is a significant film, contributing to and critiquing 21st-century culture.

1. Awards? Controversies?

2. The DC tradition, the Batman films, the variety of performance as Joker? Conflicts between Batman and Joker? Criminal, violent, clown appearance? Madness? Humour?

3. An origins film, the setting in 1980, Arthur Fleck, his name, his back story, creating a character and the influences on his life and his becoming Joker?

4. The Wayne link? Allusions, the gradual revelation, the twists? Penny Fleck? Working for Thomas Wayne? The paternity issue? The adoption issue? Abusive behaviour? Illusions? Wayne wanting to be Mayor of Gotham, chaos in Gotham? Penny’s madness, Arthur’s madness? The visiting the Wayne home, the encounter with Alfred and Bruce as a boy? His being turned away? Joker’s comments on Wayne on the television? The assassination of the parents? The final image of Bruce as a boy?

5. Joaquin Phoenix and his performance, screen presence? Sinister, different from other Jokers? His identity, with the make-up, without the make-up? Thin and emaciated, stooped, way of walking, skipping and dancing?

6. The clown imagery, the opening with the sad clown, grinning, grimacing, seemingly orphaned and abandoned, institutionalised, medicated? The make-up? His job, entertaining children? The reaction at his workplace? The ad in the street, the young group pursuing him, taking the ad, beating him, breaking the ad? The later encounter with the men on the subway? The clown with the gun and the children? His attempted stand-up comedy, failing, it being filmed? Shown on Murray’s show? The final make-up, wanting typical Joker, the clown shooting? His book of jokes and its indications of madness? The ambiguities?

7. The musical score, Send in the Clowns?

8. The film as a portrait of a mental condition? His mother, her treatment, the abuse, her dependence on him, meals, watching the television? Arthur’s mental state, the revelation of the neurological condition, the manic laughter, loud, continuous, as a motif throughout the film? People puzzled and put off? His experience in the institution, the diagnosis of his life? His going to the counsellor, his negative thoughts, accusing her of not listening? Government funding cuts and his being adrift? His boss, harsh, blaming him for the loss of the ad? Firing him? The clown, giving him the gun? The dwarf clown and his support? His mother, bullied, pampered but poor, his mother and care? Finding her letter, the continued comments on Thomas Wayne as a good man? His going to research the documents to find out the truth? Going to the Wayne mansion, the encounter with Alfred, his admiration for Murray’s show, imagining himself applauding, laughing, as a guest and honoured? The reality? Control and loss of control, the bullying and the stirring of anger and violence?

9. The portrait of his mother, ill, her story, memories of the Wayne family, real or not? At home, watching television? In the hospital, Arthur’s reaction and his killing her?

10. Sophie and the daughter, living in the apartment block, meeting in the elevator? Her sympathy, help, talk? Her finding Arthur in the apartment and her reaction?

11. The workplace, the unsympathetic boss and his being fired? The fellow clown, joking, bullying, giving him the gun? The sympathetic dwarf? The later visit, Arthur locking the door, the taunts of the clown, brutally killing him? The dwarf and his fear, not tall enough to unlock the door, after praising him, letting him out?

12. Robert De Niro as Murray, the television show, 1980s style, the guests, the talk, the jokes, the audience and the applause? Arthur imagining him on the show? Then seeing the footage of his club performance, the mockery? The agent phoning, the public interested in him? His agreeing to go to the show, the studio, the different make-up, the conversations with Murray and his producer, wanting to be called Joker, into the studio, kissing the doctor, his jokes, the book, the audience and applause, the Knock, knock? Murray interrogating him about the murders on the subway, the demonstrations? Arthur condemning him, for his mockery, shooting him? Audience reaction?

13. The men in the subway, Arthur and his frame of mind, their brutality, mockery, his shooting them? The chase, the railway station, getting rid of his clothes? The visits from the detectives, the interviews and questions? Questioning his mother? The media and the focus on the murders, the protests in the streets of Gotham, everybody disguised as clowns, the treatment of Arthur, the clowns rescuing him?

14. The background of Gotham, poverty, rats and illness, ineffectual authorities, the chaos, crime? Thomas Wayne and his promises as Mayor?

15. The comment that Joaquin Phoenix was not funny, that Joker was not funny – but that being this film is point about joker’s psyche?