Performance brings magic to tragi-comedy
JOKER
IN A complete change of tone and theme, director Todd Phillips has moved from comedies like The Hangover films and War
Dogs to a film about the origins of Batman’s nemesis Joker.
And there are not many laughs in sight.
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) lives alone with his invalid mother Penny (Frances Conroy).
They love watching Live with Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on television.
Arthur works in lowly jobs as a clown and is aiming for a career in stand-up comedy.
He has an unfortunate condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inopportune moments.
When he reads a letter from his mother to her employer of 30 years ago Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) the father of Bruce, the future Batman, she claims that Arthur is his illegitimate son.
This sets the cat among the pigeons. Arthur is destined to be put down in life, he’s beaten up by street kids, beaten up by yuppies on a train journey, he’s fired from various jobs and the girl who lives down the corridor (Zazie Beetz) is a longed-for but inaccessible connection.
The extraordinary performance by Joaquin Phoenix is absolutely the magic in this film he’s pathetic and creepy, and somehow mesmerising.
It’s really a brave, knockout act for which he shed many kilos.
This sadly disenfranchised character is awash in a sea of disenchantment as the garbage mounts in the streets of Gotham because of strikes and the populace is seething at the disparity between the haves and the havenots.
Joker has been so well handled by Todd Phillips who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver.
The design, with real New York locations blending with created ones, is splendid, as is Lawrence Sher’s cinematography and Hildur Gudnadottir’s score.
No wonder Joker came away from the Venice Film Festival with the Golden Lion and more recently with a Golden Globe Award for Phoenix and for Gudnadottir.