Follow Us
Navnee Likhi
American filmmaker Todd Phillips’ Joker is based on DC comic character of the same name. The film stars Joanquin Phoenix in the key role of Arthur Flick, a thin, impoverished, failed stand-up comedian. The film is set in 1981 in Gotham city. Arthur is in search of his identity but is mistaken for looking for adulation. Disgraced by the society for being unsuccessful, he turns into a criminal. There is nothing defined about Arthur’s character as a joker as he is unpredictable and dances and laughs like a maniac. The story is character-driven and psychologically complex. No action or visual effects have been used.
The film begins with Arthur applying a clown’s makeup in preparation for his day job as a clown-for-hire. His face contorts into half-cry grimace. Arthur suffers from a neurological disorder that causes involuntary fits of laughter. He carries a laminated card which reads, “Forgive my laughter” and hands it out to strangers, who give him an askance look. He goes for his weekly sessions with a psychiatrist but soon the state cuts the budget. This upsets him.
Arthur lives with his invalid mother Penny in a shabby apartment. She had nicknamed him “Happy” from a young age after seeing his condition and tells him that he was meant to spread laughter. Together the mother and son watch a late night TV comedy show hosted by Murray Franklin. Arthur fantasises that one day he would share the limelight with Murray. Arthur performs at a children’s hospital and is nagged by some children. He has a crush on his neighbour Sophie Dumond, who is a single mother. She often invites him to see her perform at a comedy club. He sees her as his only hope. He scribbles on his small joke book in a child-like manner, “I hope my death makes more cents than my life”. His face often reveals expressions of sorrow, a lost look, at times naively hopeful. He gives out a loud off-key laugh at all wrong lines at the comedy club.
Soon Arthur takes up a job at Murray Franklin’s late night comedy TV show as a clown. He studies his guests at the show and mimics them back home. However, Arthur has a fight with Murray and has to leave his job. Meanwhile, tension builds up in the city of Gotham. The city is polluted by garbage and overrun by super rats. Billionaire Thomas Wayne is running for the office of Mayor and claims that he is the only one who can save the poor. He refers to the city’s poor as “Clowns”. In his late night TV show, Franklin Murray plays the clips of Arthur’s terrible acts as a stand-up comedian. On seeing this, Arthur breaks down. He is beaten up by drunk men on a subway but Arthur kills some of them in self-defence. Next day the news about a clown murdering stockbrokers of Wayne Enterprise spreads. There’s tension between the rich and the poor. Arthur gets noticed for the first time.
Spearheading the cause Arthur yells on the microphone that he didn’t believe in anything and he wanted the world to see itself in the mirror. His lonely unsuccessful career gives him the image of a psychopath to help the have-not’s of the city. Arthur is anything but a hero. The scenes of violence are consumed by Arthur’s new-found power as a joker.
The movie is an immaculately crafted piece of entertainment. The film has indeed emphasised a different take on the character of joker in a previously made film of the same name. In one of his interviews at the Venice Film Festival, Todd Phillips pointed out that Arthur as joker is pathetic, who yearns to be noticed and didn’t want the city to burn.
Cinematography by Lawrence Sher lends the look of urban cinema of the 1980s. Background score by musician from Iceland Hildur Guonadottir is stunning. Joanquin Phoenix in role of Arthur Flick as joker gives a riveting performance. Joker shows that it is good enough to be dangerous and bad enough to be better.
1
3
8