Todd Phillips's Joker film delivers a strangely uncool version of a classic maniac
at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival. The movie hits theaters October 4.where Arthur Fleck, the man who becomes the Joker, goes on a rant. He’s talking about society, or primarily how he has been wronged by the world around him . I was at the edge of my seat the entire time, mostly because he was dancing around uttering the phrase immortalized by meme culture: “We live in a society.
Every night, Arthur goes home to care for his ailing mother after working as a clown for hire, and each night they watch a late night television show hosted by his idol Murray Franklin, played by Robert De Niro. It barely matters that Robert De Niro plays Franklin; he’s just one person on the long list of criminally underused talent throughout the film. Fleck doesn’t have a father, but he fantasizes about Murray becoming a type of father to him.
Phoenix plays Fleck with almost childlike enthusiasm . He dances like nobody’s watching, tries to win the heart of his neighbor Sophie, played by Zazie Beetz , and is treated like a fool by everyone for no apparent reason other than that he’s weird. It’s not until his livelihood is in jeopardy that we see just how far he can be pushed, as his actions inadvertently start a revolution.
It’s at this point that I realize Todd Phillips made a movie for people who don’t really understand how revolutions work or are created. The residents of Gotham have almost no details about the crime, and as far as they’re concerned, there’s no motive or anyone who has taken responsibility.
Anyone going into the film is likely familiar with Jokers of yore: Jack Nicholson’s dancing and campy gangster, Heath Ledger’s cunning and truly brilliant criminal mastermind, and whatever Jared Leto was trying to do inpart of what makes his performance beguiling—he’s just a regular guy who decides one day that he’s had enough.
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