For the longest time, the Joker was Heath Ledger, and the idea of someone else playing the Joker was unfathomable. When Jared Leto played the Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad, he proved that theory, as the only memorable thing about his performance was how terrible he was. In Joker, which was released earlier this month, Joaquin Phoenix plays the Joker in a horribly disturbing and unsettling way, making the movie one to remember.
Joker is set in a pre-Batman Gotham City and follows Arthur Fleck on his descent to becoming the Joker. However, Joker does not portray Arthur as someone becoming insane, but as someone with a mental illness. Arthur has a condition called the Pseudobulbar Affect, which makes him laugh uncontrollably whenever he is stressed. Todd Phillips, who is the director and co-screenplay writer alongside Scott Silver, uses Arthur’s mental illness to get the audience to sympathize with the character, and it works, slightly, that is, at the beginning. This Gotham is dark, grungy and displays a world that does not particularly care for the people in it, especially Arthur. For a moment, it seems like the perfect superhero origin story: a disgruntled man who has a mental illness and is repeatedly beaten down by society, and all he needs is that ideal superhero moment to rise above it. But then one subway ride and a gunshot later, you remember that this is not an origin story for a superhero, but an origin story for a supervillain.
Despite how sympathetic the storyline makes the Joker, Phoenix makes the Joker his. He is creepy and disturbing and believable. He’s who you want the Joker to be, and if it wasn’t for Phoenix’s performance, there would be nothing good to say about Joker. Somehow Phoenix’s performance made me forget that Heath Ledger played the Joker, which is surprising.
DC movies have been on a notoriously rough road. In comparison to those of Marvel, most of their movies have been remarkably forgettable as they have contained both bad writing and wrong directional decisions. Their one real standout film, until now, was 2017’s Wonder Woman, as it was both wonderously done and it was the first female superhero movie. Somehow, Joker has managed to rise above the usual category of DC movies into its own new category of strange, disturbing DC movies that, through Phoenix’s performance, miraculously deserve to be watched again.
Joker is bringing in new era of movies to the DC universe
