Todd Phillips’ disturbing character study of Arthur Fleck is so iconic that it marks a reflection point of Hollywood’s superhero movie genre. You see no flashy CGI, alien conquerors, drunken gods, million-dollar costumes but it still grossed over record-breaking $1 billion and earned Oscars. Its highly anticipated and satisfactory success set bars for the genre leaving questions unanswered; did Joker dissolve the margin of superhero and non-superhero movie genres? What will big studios do next, should they invest more in quality storytelling and artistic cinema than the massive scale graphics and technology?
Heath Ledger’s legendary portrayal of Joker made Batman’s arch-enemy a perfection, one of the greatest villains of all-time. Fans around the world were enthusiastic and also judgmental on who’s going to play the character after Heath’s demise. They were not going to go easy if the great character falls on lesser talent. Unfortunately, award-winning Jared Leto failed to impress the audience, faced a huge lash on social media. It took a while until Joker trailer hit the media, and the excitement skyrocketed, Phoenix’s performance was praised. Once the movie started screening, it disappointed neither the audience nor juries around the world.
Phoenix was so impeccable and magical in his role that the performance overshadowed the other aspects of the movie, and cloaked artistic faults of the story and direction. Hyped up first reviews were extremely positive. According to them Joker would have ended up winning the best picture, best screenplay, obviously, the best actor at the Oscars. Well, it didn’t happen, Todd Phillips and his team secured what they deserved, Best Actor and Best original music score awards.
Joker screenplay was inspired by the writer’s interpretation of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 movie Taxi Driver and 1982 movie, The King of Comedy. Homage to the inspiration was paid by casting Robert De Niro, who starred in both, as the late-night TV host Murray Franklin. Taxi Driver and Joker explore mentally disturbed characters who attempt to resolve their existential issues. Isolation and maniac ideation made the broken regular men rise as vigilantes. But I believe Joker’s plot is more similar to the 2010 movie Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Nina, a ballerina is chosen to perform in a ballet, and she becomes overwhelmed and obsessed with the character, Black Swan. Arthur’s struggle at work as a clown looks the same. Both are delusional and schizophrenic, they tend to lose the grip of reality. Nina’s mother has her own mysterious way of isolation, she paints her portraits. It’s a sign that she’s a Narcissist. Arthur’s mother is also diagnosed with Narcissistic personality disorder. Nina and Arthur’s romantic and sexual relationships are entirely delusional, and they have love-hate relationships with mothers.
The most important similarity is drawn at the climax; before going live on the TV show, Arthur insists the production crew to introduce him as the Joker. Arthur is no more. Nina kills herself to become the perfect Black Swan. Both give up their real identities and become one with the role they’ve always fantasized about.
Metaphorically, Arthur suicides by eliminating mother, morality, fear and his name becomes the mask he wears, the Joker. Batman hides his identity behind the mask, Joker becomes the mask itself. This motif continues entirely throughout the Batman-Joker rivalry. Joker doesn’t want to kill the Batman, he just wants to remove his mask, reveal the true identity. And Batman tries the same. But Joker’s origin is always unsolved. Nolan’s Joker has many stories to tell why his face is scarred. Though Todd’s Joker is an original story, it’s a story told by a delusional patient. Nobody knows the real origin of Joker, not even the audience, because he hasn’t any. Because he’s just a mask. There’s nobody behind the mask. That’s a little bit of philosophy.
If you dig deeper into fables, folk stories and fairy tales around the world, you’ll find that the role of clown is inevitable. Andare is a well-known comedian in Sri Lankan folk stories.
The common quality all comedians possess is they are brutally honest. They can make you laugh at the most stigmatized, taboo concepts without any moral pressure on guilt. They mock the ideologies and order of the system.
Arthur’s pathological laughter triggers at points where humanity fails to comprehend its moral dignity as you find in many disturbing scenes in Joker.
So, the plot is neither original nor full of surprises, but the screenplay’s tight and clear. How Todd had directed Phoenix is exceptional, but failed at depicting the corrupted system of Gotham and the gradual rise of anarchism by staging crowd scenes and integrating them into the story effectively.
Joaquin Phoenix was flawless as the Joker.