The Insane JOKER is now Streaming on Netflix
In 1981, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is trying to keep a grip on things in his life, while struggling with his mental health issues, including uncontrollable laughter when his anxiety rises. With a passion for laughter, Arthur has found a calling to be a clown, but life in the city of Gotham is no laughing matter, with Arthur assaulted on the job, only to return home to care for his sickly mother, Penny (Frances Conroy).
Despite being heavily medicated to control his mental state, Arthur holds onto a dream of being a stand-up comedian, hoping to appear on “The Murray Franklin Show”, finally getting a chance to meet the late-night talk show host, Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), and wowing him with his performance skills.
Unfortunately, his dream grows dark as Arthur, dealing poorly with the loss of his job, gets entangled into harassment on the subway, which results into something troublesome woes for the aspiring comedian. This event sparks a series of events for Arthur, facing a divide society, confront shocking revelations, and falls into madness as the young man gives into his violent inhibitions.In 1981, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is trying to keep a grip on things in his life, while struggling with his mental health issues, including uncontrollable laughter when his anxiety rises. With a passion for laughter, Arthur has found a calling to be a clown, but life in the city of Gotham is no laughing matter, with Arthur assaulted on the job, only to return home to care for his sickly mother, Penny (Frances Conroy). Despite being heavily medicated to control his mental state, Arthur holds onto a dream of being a stand-up comedian, hoping to appear on “The Murray Franklin Show”, finally getting a chance to meet the late-night talk show host, Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), and wowing him with his performance skills.
Unfortunately, his dream grows dark as Arthur, dealing poorly with the loss of his job, gets entangled into harassment on the subway, which results into something troublesome woes for the aspiring comedian. This event sparks a series of events for Arthur, facing a divide society, confront shocking revelations, and falls into madness as the young man gives into his violent inhibitions.
Joker is directed by Todd Phillips, whose previous directorial works includes such films like The Hangover trilogy, War Dogs, and Due Date. With his previous directing background in the more comedic realm of storytelling, Phillips does seem like an odd choice for this project, which seeks to portray this iteration of the iconic Batman villain as a more “grounded” character than its comic book source material, including a more psychological understanding of the Joker’s demeanor and mindset. Still, despite this per-conceive notion, Phillips does succeed (quite well in fact) at helming this project; approaching Joker with a sense of real-world as the feature’s backdrop.
Again, despite the film’s source material coming from the realm of comic book superheroes, Phillips does a great job in shaping the feature to be a more “grounded” feature and making its various characters (main or supporting players) to be more life-like rather than larger-than-life characters. This is further realized with the Joker being released in the pinnacle peak of the “golden age” of superhero blockbuster features as Phillips utilizes a more “smaller scale” and seems to be a character study focus within its origin tale rather than a classic superhero origin tale (i.e a freak accident, gifted superhuman powers, saving the world, etc.).
This approach is (of course) different from the normal and is quite well-received by many, including myself; finding Phillips making the movie more relatable to us (the viewers) in the real world than more so of costume wearing heroes and mustache twirling villains. In addition, Phillips has a steady hand in making the film’s main focus on Arthur Fleck / Joker.
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