Joker

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and more.
The Joker has always been an iconic villain, one of the most popular in DC Comic’s arsenal of the despicable that Batman has gone toe to toe with. This piece is set before all that though, before Batman was roaming the streets of Gotham City to ask how someone like the titular Joker was made to turn to a life of chaos and crime, and to try to put an origin to the clown prince of crime himself.
It’s easy to see this fall flat or fail – it’s not the first time a Joker origin story has been attempted, but writer/director Todd Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver (who also wrote 8 Mile and The Fighter) have tried to ignore the CGI, special effects and superpowers of other Hero movies in an attempt to show WHO Arthur Fleck is, the failing comedian who is down on his luck, poor in a city that isn’t helping him and so medicated it’s a wonder he works in comedy entirely. It’s trying to show the kind of make-up (and not just the clown getup), emotions and psychology that slowly twists him down the dark path of the titular character. Joaquin Phoenix takes up the titular roles as Fleck and the Joker, and while playing the Joker is always going to draw comparisons between Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson, he’s also playing the man behind the make-up as well – he seems completely different from those two titans because of this.
Fans of DC Comics may see a slight deviation from the source material, but inspirations have been drawn from the 1988 graphic novel “The Killing Joke” which does deal with similar materials of the Joker’s origins, but the deviations should still make this a strong standout contender, one that sits away from pre-established DC cinematic universe portrayals to tell a different kind of story.
> Mark Goddard