Joker: Why So Serious?

Joaquin Phoenix lights up the silver screen as Joker, the legendary villain of DC Comics.

Move over cartoonish Jack Nicholson wincing in his purple suit or Heath Ledger and his deranged take on the killer clown.

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Joaquin Phoenix’s staggering performance was reviewed in comparison to these iconic appearances and got an eight-minute standing ovation by the critics, which certainly has never happened before. The film by Todd Philips has already bagged the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and is further predicted an Oscar.

The movie explores the genesis of the supervillain who is the sworn enemy of Batman. The character, Arthur Fleck, is a loser clown who dreams of doing stand-up, but instead gets bullied and humiliated by society as a whole. He thus ends up finding success in crime and flourishing in violence.The plot is set in 1981 in Gotham City, where the gap between the super rich and a majority of the ignored population is widening with the passage of time. Even though the film takes place in 1981, its subject is of a burning social and political topicality. It raises questions, at a time when the American Conservatives are waving the shield of mental illness to avoid questions about the policy of free sale of firearms, while dozens of mass killings have already bloodied the country.

The film has borrowed certain elements from the cult comic of Alan Moore The Killing Joke (1988) and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). It remains mainly a tribute supported by the classics. Following the footsteps of De Niro, Phoenix worked hard for this role. He lost 25 kilos and studied certain neurosis, including “pathological laughter”, an uncontrollable disease. The film has already disturbed its first viewers and we have to admit that Todd Phillipps has skilfully supported the grievances of the masses by asking unanswered questions about violence, cruelty and evil. In a nutshell, it is a hyperrealistic, subversive and political interpretation.

From the September 2020 issue of L’Officiel India.