Joaquin Phoenix gives the finest performance of 2019 as Joker
You may think you’ve seen it all before with The Ace of Knaves, but in the hands of Joaquin Phoenix Joker is one of the most significant, daring, subversive and divisive movies to make it into the mainstream in a long, long time.
Leigh Paatsch
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In the hands of Joaquin Phoenix, Joker is wild in a whole new, nerve-shredding way.
You may think you have seen it all before when it comes to The Joker. Fair enough.
But even if you believe acclaimed past interpretations of the Ace of Knaves by Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson have emphatically filled in all the blanks of this iconic, irredeemably insane character, Phoenix’s incredible portrayal will still come as a revelation.
In what should come to stand as the finest performance of 2019 - Oscars, here he comes! - Phoenix isolates a void in The Joker between the breaking of the man and the making of a menace to society.
What he finds there will rattle you incessantly, no matter how comfy your seat.
As for the movie housing this breathtaking acting feat, it is both an origin story for The Joker, and an original story with no ties to any Batman-badged production you have seen before.
This dirty comet of despair will only fleetingly pass through the outer fringes of the DC Comics Universe.
Just close enough to make out a grotty Gotham City in 1981 that is the hellhole of a home to a pathetic part-time clown and aspiring stand-up comedian.
His name is Arthur Fleck (Phoenix). He lives at home with his elderly mother Penny (Frances Conroy), a largely bedridden woman whose main hobby is penning letters to her former employer, Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen).
Mr Wayne said he would help Penny should she ever hit hard times. Those times have indeed come. While she awaits a reply, she and her son convene late each evening to watch their favourite TV program, a talk show hosted by Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro).
Arthur’s sole dream in life is to appear on the Murray Franklin Show.
With each passing day presenting a newer and nastier nightmare than before, that dream seems beyond impossible.
And not just because his stand-up act is utterly terrible. Arthur also suffers from chronic depression - he is on seven different forms of medication - and a nervous condition that manifests itself as bouts of uncontrollable laughter at inappropriate times.
With Arthur never able to get any kind of positive momentum started - teenagers beat him up, other clowns steal his jobs, other people avoid him like the plague - you don’t have to be Einstein to see this isn’t going to end well for a wretched, spent force of a human being.
The snapping point, when it finally arrives, sees the last traces of Arthur Fleck vanishing and the first glimpses of The Joker looming ominously in the distance.
Director Todd Phillips holds the tension accompanying this disturbing metamorphosis for an ungodly amount of time, until it becomes absolutely unbearable.
Then he lets go, and with it is released a final burst of fury from Phoenix that is as shocking and sobering as anything seen in a cinema in the past decade.
Make no mistake. Joker is one of the most significant, daring, subversive and divisive movies to make its way into the mainstream in a long, long time.
Like the first-wave of Martin Scorsese-directed movies which are a clear stylistic and storytelling influence here - Taxi Driver and King of Comedy are the obvious reference points - Joker is an unapologetically confronting work some may find hard to forgive, but no-one will ever forget.
JOKER (MA15+)
Director: Todd Phillips (The Hangover)
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Francis Conroy, Zazie Beetz.
Rating: *****
Sad clown. Mad clown. Bad clown.
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