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“Joker” Premieres At Film @ Have Actor Joaquin IRISH
Lincoln Center’s 57th New York Phoenix and Director
Film Festival Todd Phillips Made Joker EXAMINER
Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix stars in the title role of Todd Phillips’ ”Joker,” along-
side Oscar winner Robert De Niro and Zazie Beetz. Golden Lion winner for Best Film Too Much of A |
at the Venice Film Festival, the film is being heralded by critics as “gloriously daring.”
Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck — indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix — as Subversive Affair? October
a man struggling in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires Director: Todd Phillips
to be a stand-up comic at night… But he finds the joke always seems to be on him. Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Robert DeNiro 9th,
Arthur makes one bad decision that brings on a chain reaction of escalating events 2019
in this gritty character study. (Photos by Roger Wong/instarimages.com) Warner
Bros.
By Brad Balfour
In the course of viewing “Joker,” I said to myself… Why? If
this film hadn’t been made to exploit this classic character, con-
figured as Batman’s ultimate enemy, would I have been so driv-
en to see this nobody’s utter deterioration on the opening week-
end? It’s an unrelentingly grim exposition of an individual who’s
been on an ever-painful daily journey jostled into his final
Joaquin Phoenix attends the 57th New York Film descent into thorough madness. We are seeing a serial killer in
Festival premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures, Village the making — or at least as a presumed arch villain in the process
Roadshow Pictures and Bron Creative release of Joker of a personal decay so severe that in Arthur Fleck becoming the
at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center Rooney Mara full-blown Joker in the superhero-fied Batman series, it seems
sort of redemptive. From aimless nihilism, he finds meaning in
the arch villainy that he will express. His chaotic action will even-
tually find form in criminality.
Yes, I have been a Batman fan ever since artist Neil Adams
and writer Denny O Neill had reconfigured the character in the
early ‘70s into the first version of the Dark Knight — and the
Joker went from camp to criminal mastermind. And that Joker as
have been the further incarnations since Batman was redefined
have been lot more sinister and a bit subversive.
But we’ve never seen Joker like this in an R-rated movie.
That’s a big deal for the best known villain in the comic-book
universe — on-screen or off. To compare other R-rated comic-
book fare (albeit less disturbing) like Hugh Jackman’s “Logan” or
Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool” — they don’t seem as polarizing to
audiences looking for something more in line with “Aquaman”
or “Shazam.” But the Clown Prince of Crime’s appeal here goes
beyond just fanboys and girls. This “Joker” is not just a tradition-
al superhero movie, it’s a lot more than a little different, it’s sub-
versive.
Of course I feel sorry for the victims —either real or imagined
— killed by a such a spree shooter but I feel that for the offbeat
kids like Fleck who are uncertain as to who to talk with when
they feel overwhelmed by anger, hurt and an effort to force con-
formity on themselves.
Fleck’s madness is real. By it being shown here in the knowl-
edge that it serves a superhero mythology shouldn’t make it less
painful. Though Phoenix’s performance has some real power to
it, there’s a self consciousness in it that makes it more anesthetiz-
Zazie Beetz Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips ing than enlightening. C
