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‘Joker’ Review: Are You Kidding Me?

Todd Phillips’s supervillain origin story starring Joaquin Phoenix is stirring up a fierce debate, but it’s not interesting enough to argue about.

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‘Joker’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Todd phillips narrates a sequence from “joker.”.

Hi, this is Todd Phillips. I’m the director of “Joker.” So this scene is interesting because it’s right after a life-changing cataclysmic event in Arthur’s life, and he’s found this little kind of rundown park bathroom to go in and collect his thoughts and get himself together. What’s interesting about this scene to me is it’s entirely different than what we had scripted. In the script, Arthur was to come into the bathroom, hide his gun, wash off his makeup, and staring at himself in the mirror like what have I done. And when we got to the set on the day, Joaquin and I just sort of stood around like, this doesn’t really seem very Arthur. Why would Arthur care to hide his gun? And we really kind of tossed around a million ways to just do something different. And it was about an hour into it and I said, hey, you know, I got this piece of music from Hildur. Hildur Gudnadottir is our composer, and she’d been sending me music throughout, while we were shooting. And I just wanted to play Joaquin this piece of music. And Joaquin just started to dance to the music, and it was just me and him alone in the bathroom. There’s 250 people on the crew waiting outside. And he just starts doing this dance, and we both kind of look at each other and said, O.K., that’s the scene. It made sense to us because when I first met with Joaquin and we first started talking about “Joker,” I talked to him that Arthur is one of those people that has music in him. So music and dance became a theme in the film. And this is the second time we see him dancing, and it’s a little bit of Joker coming out, a little bit more than the scene before and a little bit less than the next time we see him dance. [MUSIC PLAYING]

By A.O. Scott

Since its debut a few weeks ago at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the top prize , Todd Phillips’s “ Joker ” has stirred up quite a tempest. Hands have been wrung about the movie’s supposed potential to inspire acts of real-life violence, and criticism of its brutal nihilism has been met with a counter-backlash, including from Phillips himself, who has been sounding off about the “far left” and “woke culture” and other threats to the ability of a murderous clown to make money unmolested. Meanwhile, the usual armies of skeptics and fans have squared off with ready-made accusations of bad faith, hypersensitivity and quasi-fascist groupthink.

We are now at the phase of the argument cycle when actual ticket buyers have a chance to see what all the fuss is about, which means that it’s also time for me to say my piece. And what I have to say is: Are you kidding me?

To be worth arguing about, a movie must first of all be interesting: it must have, if not a coherent point of view, at least a worked-out, thought-provoking set of themes, some kind of imaginative contact with the world as we know it. “ Joker ,” an empty, foggy exercise in second-hand style and second-rate philosophizing, has none of that. Besotted with the notion of its own audacity — as if willful unpleasantness were a form of artistic courage — the film turns out to be afraid of its own shadow, or at least of the faintest shadow of any actual relevance.

It barely even works within the confines of its own genre, the comic-book movie. “Joker” is a supervillain origin story, involving a character whose big-screen résumé already includes three Oscar winners (two for other roles, but still). It’s not hard to see the appeal. The Joker, an embodiment of pure anarchy, can be played light or heavy, scary or fun or all at once. He can sneer like Jack Nicholson, snarl like Heath Ledger or … I’m still not sure what Jared Leto was doing, but never mind.

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Joker: Folie à Deux First Reviews: Joaquin Phoenix Shines Again in 'Deranged, Exciting, and Deeply Unsettling' Sequel

Critics say todd phillips' follow-up benefits from another phenomenal performance from its lead and a strong supporting turn from lady gaga, but it may potentially prove just as divisive as its predecessor..

TAGGED AS: DC Comics , movies

Released five years ago, Todd Phillips’ Joker was an outlier among comic book movies. In addition to grossing over a billion dollars, it was nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and it won two, including the Best Actor award for star Joaquin Phoenix . Its Tomatometer score was positive, yet the movie was divisive in its overall reception. Now, the musical-infused sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux , is less likely to be as big a phenomenon, and according to the first reviews of the movie out of the Venice Film Festival, it’s maybe not quite as good, despite another strong performance from Phoenix, plenty more technical delights, and the addition of Lady Gaga . Still, as with the first Joker , whether you love or hate it, it’s something to see.

Here’s what critics are saying about Joker: Folie à Deux :

Does it live up to expectations?

The highly anticipated sequel to Joker is as deranged and exciting as you would have hoped. — Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Joker: Folie à Deux will surprise many people for its ingenuity… It’ll get people talking as much, if not even more, than the first. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

This is one of the most unique takes on comic book characters I’ve seen on film… Phillips deserves praise for taking bold creative risks that pay off in unexpected ways. — Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

[It’s] unlike anything I imagined it would be. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

[It’s an] ingenious and deeply unsettling film. — Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

Folie à Deux is a movie tailored to its expectations, yes. But the Joker’s trick is that it rejects them, a bravado move from Phillips that’s sure to hemorrhage his fan base. — Luke Hicks, The Film Stage

Joker: Folie à Deux may be ambitious and superficially outrageous, but at heart, it’s an overly cautious sequel. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety

(Photo by Niko Tavernise/©Warner Bros.)

How does it compare to the first Joker ?

This is far more entertaining of a film than the first. — Yasmine Kandil, AwardsWatch

Just as bleak and formally daring… just as edgy and disturbing as its forerunner. — Geoffrey Macnab, Independent

Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. — Matthew Turner, NME

Unlike the original, which finds a perverse heroism in Arthur Fleck’s failings, Folie à Deux doubles down on how pathetic he is, and always was. — William Bibbiani, The Wrap

Though it ends up as strident, laborious, and often flat-out tedious as the first film, there’s an improvement. — Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Die-hard fans of the first film may have some reservations about this story, which looks to course-correct some of the events and interpretations of the first film and its presentation. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

(Photo by ©Warner Bros.)

Is Joaquin Phoenix still Best Actor material here?

Phoenix once again delivers an award-worthy performance… This time, it’s fascinating to watch him fully commit to the Joker persona, grappling with the duality of Arthur and the Joker like never before. — Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

Phoenix delivers another masterful performance, this time more controlled and restrained as he goes deeper into Arthur’s psyche and showcases his impressive vocals. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

Phoenix is fantastic once again as Arthur, delivering a compelling and remarkably physical performance that teeters on the edge of insanity throughout – it’s simultaneously chilling and unexpectedly moving. — Matthew Turner, NME

Phoenix’s performance is as strong as ever, adding a new layer of vulnerability to Arthur as he rapidly falls for Lee and descends back into madness. — Yasmine Kandil, AwardsWatch

His performance in Joker: Folie à Deux continues to amaze… He continues to be scary good at his craft. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

If not topping his Oscar-winning turn in Joker, [he] at least find[s] a way to take him in a different, wholly surprising direction. — Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Phoenix sprawls out across the screen, luxuriantly, comfortably, and confidently…however, he never loses Arthur’s inherent goofiness even when putting on this front. — Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies

What about Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn?

Lady Gaga is equally good as Harleen, sparking palpably insane chemistry with Phoenix. — Matthew Turner, NME

By far the riskiest role the famous artist has taken on, she is extraordinary and lights up the screen with her deranged presence just as much as Phoenix did in the first film. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

Gaga is a compelling live-wire presence, splitting the difference between affinity and obsession. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Gaga shines in the sequel’s musical sequences. — Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Gaga’s musical performance was incredible. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

Gaga doesn’t quite reach the mania that Harley Quinn ought to have but still packs a wallop where it counts. — Kyle Anderson, Nerdist

Gaga never gets a chance to do what she did in A Star Is Born : seize the audience with her rapture. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Does it cater to the Batman fanbase?

As far as certain Bat-obsessed members of the fanbase who just want to see more of the same will be concerned – at certain points this feels like blatant teasing, and it’s bound to provoke a reaction. — Matthew Turner, NME

It forgets that other characters need attention. Gotham is such a rich, complex world; it’s a shame we don’t see more of it or the development of characters within it. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

Phillips and Silver deserve credit for going their own way with a canonical DC character. But it’s difficult to imagine hard-core Batman universe aficionados being thrilled by [this] movie. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Folie à Deux doesn’t follow the typical comic book movie formula viewers are used to. For some, that might be off-putting; for others, it’s a breath of fresh air that breaks away from the norm. — Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

It’s a much-welcomed surprise to see a studio franchise film, based on DC Comics so less, care so little for genre conventions. — Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

How is it as a musical?

The musical elements of the film were phenomenal… Gaga’s musical performance was incredible. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

The musical numbers in Joker: Folie à Deux are well-performed and incredibly entertaining. — Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Phillips does not allow the musical aspects to resemble the go-for-broke style of most musicals from the era when Arthur probably saw them or heard records growing up. — Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

I feel like if the movie was going to go for musical numbers, it should have gone for broke. — Kyle Anderson, Nerdist

Surprisingly, given the sheer quantity of musical numbers, the film chooses to downplay the choreography, instead focusing on the songs themselves. — Matthew Turner, NME

The musical numbers become overindulgent and only sometimes necessary. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

While it’s a jukebox musical whose song selections range from Stevie Wonder to MGM standards, it is perversely dedicated to eliminating as much pleasure as possible from its song and dance numbers. — Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture

What about the score?

Hildur Gudnadottir’s score for the first Joker was so integral to the story it won an Oscar. Here she hits just the right notes again. — Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The score for Joker: Folie à Deux kept me engaged, on the edge of my seat, and sometimes biting my nails. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

Hildur Guðnadóttir once again cooks with another outstanding score that elevates the film. — Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

The most crucial of callbacks is Hildur Guðnadóttir’s phenomenal Oscar-winning score, which still retains its haunting vigor. — Yasmine Kandil, AwardsWatch

Hildur Guðnadóttir’s grave-deep, cello-sawing score is heavy enough to throw your back out, lurking in the shadows of every romantic tune or nice moment. — Luke Hicks, The Film Stage

How does it look?

Lawrence Sher returns as cinematographer for the sequel, and once again he pulls out all the stops. His lighting is rich, his framing is arch, his allegories are often painfully in your face. — William Bibbiani, The Wrap

As with the original movie, the film looks gorgeous throughout, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher making strong use of color and conjuring up some beautiful images. — Matthew Turner, NME

The film’s cinematography does a fantastic job of capturing the gritty, oppressive atmosphere of Gotham City, perfectly mirroring Arthur’s battle into madness. — Dorian Parks, Geeks of Color

Production values across the board are excellent, particularly returning Lawrence Sher’s cinematography, the production design of Mark Friedberg, and costumes from Arianna Phillips. — Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

A few dreamlike flourishes do appear, though mostly to quote the familiar visuals of other musicals, like Jaques Demy’s French New Wave landmark The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Francis Ford Coppola’s sincere, expressionistic One from the Heart . — Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies

Is the screenplay good?

The screenplay is more restrained and less sensationalist than its predecessor, which works well with the themes at hand. — Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

It’s a surprisingly far more mature storyline that Phillips and Scott Silver have crafted for this sequel, continuing to deliver something entirely new with the already exhausted comic book genre. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

Above all else, the script does a disservice to the complexity of Harleen Quinzel. This is far from an issue that stems from creating a new character variation, but rather its failure to commit wholeheartedly. — Yasmine Kandil, AwardsWatch

I exited the screening feeling that it was shameful that I did not care for any of the female characters in this film. — Catalina Combs, Black Girl Nerds

For a movie running two-and-a-quarter hours, Folie à Deux feels narratively a little thin and at times dull. — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Not enough happens in Folie à Deux . — Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Is there enough substance to go with the style?

Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver have delivered a surprisingly moving, psychologically complex tale. — Matthew Turner, NME

This sequel is far more considerate and introspective than one would expect coming from a film that featured so many gruesome kills and muddled storytelling on its ultimate goals for society. — Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture

It seems Phillips wants to comment on what’s become entertainment in a TMZ world where tabloid stories and social media dominate interest over more serious issues… Joker: Folie à Deux has some answers, and twists. — Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Phillips doesn’t risk misinterpretation. He’s less interested in commenting on society than in cooling down society’s temper. — Luke Hicks, The Film Stage

What’s most impressive about Joker: Folie à Deux is the way Phillips willingly undercuts his own billion-dollar blockbuster. — William Bibbiani, The Wrap

The worst thing about Joker: Folie à Deux is its unfulfilled potential… without doing or saying anything new. — Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies

Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros. On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News .

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Film Review: ‘Joker’

Joaquin Phoenix is astonishing as a mentally ill geek who becomes the killer-clown Joker in Todd Phillips' neo-'Taxi Driver' knockout: the rare comic-book movie that expresses what's happening in the real world.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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Audiences, as we know, can’t get enough of a great bad guy — the kind we love to hate. The worse he acts, the more we stare. Of course, the fact that we relish a villain doesn’t mean that we’re on his side; getting off on the catchy, scary spectacle of bad behavior isn’t the same as identifying with it. But in “ Joker ,” Todd Phillips ’ hypnotically perverse, ghoulishly grippingly urban-nightmare comic fantasia, Arthur Fleck ( Joaquin Phoenix ), the mentally ill loser-freak who will, down the line, become Batman’s nemesis, stands before us not as a grand villain but as a pathetic specimen of raw human damage. Even as we’re drinking in his screw-loose antics with shock and dismay, there’s no denying that we feel something for him — a twinge of sympathy, or at least understanding.

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Early on, Arthur, in full clown regalia, is standing in front of a store on a jam-packed avenue, where he’s been hired to carry an “Everything Must Go” sign. A bunch of kids steal the sign and then kick the holy crap out of him. The beating fulfills a certain masochistic karma Arthur carries around, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we feel sorry for him.

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“Joker” tells the story of Arthur’s descent (and, in a way, his rise), but it’s clear from the outset that he’s a basket case, a kind of maestro of his own misery. He would like, on some level, to connect, but he can’t. He’s too far out there, like Norman Bates; he’s a self-conscious, postmodern head case ­— a person who spends every moment trying to twist himself into a normal shape, but he knows the effort is doomed, so he turns it all into a “joke” that only he gets.

Arthur’s response to almost everything is to laugh, and he’s got a collection of contrived guffaws — a high-pitched delirious giggle, a “hearty” yock, a stylized cackle that’s all but indistinguishable from a sob. In each case, the laughter is an act that parades itself as fakery. What it expresses isn’t glee; it expresses the fact that Arthur feels nothing, that he’s dead inside. He’s a bitter, mocking nowhere man on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

For all two hours of “Joker,” Arthur, a two-bit professional clown and aspiring stand-up comic who lives with his batty mother (Frances Conroy) in a peeling-paint apartment, is front and center — in the movie, and in our psychological viewfinder. He’s at the dark heart of every scene, the way Travis Bickle was in “Taxi Driver,” and “Joker,” set in 1981 in a Gotham City that looks, with uncanny exactitude, like the squalid, graffiti-strewn, trash-heaped New York City of the early ’80s (you can feel the rot), is a movie made in direct homage to “Taxi Driver,” though there are other films it will make you think of. As the story of a putz trying to succeed as a stand-up comedian, it evokes Scorsese and De Niro’s satirical riff on “Taxi Driver,” “The King of Comedy.” There are also elements lifted from “Death Wish,” “Network,” “V for Vendetta,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” “The Shining” and “The Purge.”

More than that, though, the whole movie, in spirit, is a kind of origin-story riff on Heath Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight”: the comic-book villain as Method psycho, a troublemaker so intense in his cuckoo hostility that even as you’re gawking at his violence, you still feel his pain.

Phoenix’s performance is astonishing. He appears to have lost weight for the role, so that his ribs and shoulder blades protrude, and the leanness burns his face down to its expressive essence: black eyebrows, sallow cheeks sunk in gloom, a mouth so rubbery it seems to be snarking at the very notion of expression, all set off by a greasy mop of hair. Phoenix is playing a geek with an unhinged mind, yet he’s so controlled that he’s mesmerizing. He stays true to the desperate logic of Arthur’s unhappiness.

You’re always aware of how much the mood and design of “Joker” owe to “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy.” For a filmmaker gifted enough to stand on his own, Phillips is too beholden to his idols. Yet within that scheme, he creates a dazzlingly disturbed psycho morality play, one that speaks to the age of incels and mass shooters and no-hope politics, of the kind of hate that emerges from crushed dreams.

Arthur and his mother sit around after hours, watching the late-night talk-show host Murray Franklin (played, by De Niro, as a piece of old-school Carson vaudeville), and as much as we think Arthur should move out and leave his mommy behind, we hardly know the half of it. When he gets fired (for revealing a handgun during a clown gig at a children’s hospital ward), there’s a suspense built into everything that happens, and it spins around the question: How will someone this weak and inept, this trapped in the nuttiness of his self-delusion, evolve into a figure of dark power?

At night, on the subway, Arthur, still wearing his clown suit, is taunted and attacked by three young Wall Street players. So he pulls out his gun like Charles Bronson and shoots them dead. The case becomes tabloid fodder (“Killer Clown on the Loose”), and the sensation of it is that the denizens of Gotham think he’s a hero. That sounds like a standard comic-book-movie ploy, but the twisted commitment of Phoenix’s performance lets us feel how the violence cleanses Arthur; doing tai chi in a bathroom after the murders, he’s reborn. And we believe in his thirst for escape, because Phillips, working with the cinematographer Lawrence Sher (who evokes “Taxi Driver’s” gray-green documentary seaminess), creates an urban inferno so lifelike that it threatens to make the film-noir Gotham of “The Dark Knight” look like a video game.

Of course, a rebellion against the ruling elite — which is what Arthur’s vigilante action comes to symbolize — is more plausible now than it was a decade ago. “Joker” is a comic-book tale rendered with sinister topical fervor. When Arthur, on the elevator, connects with Sophie (Zazie Beetz), his neighbor, the two take turns miming Travis Bickle’s finger-gun-against-the-head suicide gesture, which becomes the film’s key motif. It’s a way of saying: This is what America has come to — a place where people feel like blowing their brains out. The relationship between Arthur and Sophie doesn’t track if you think about it too much, but it’s a riff on one that didn’t totally track either — the link, however fleeting, between Travis and Cybill Shepherd’s Betsy in “Taxi Driver.” Arthur, in a funny way, hides his brains (they’re revealed only when he passes through the looking glass of villainy). He’s got a piece missing. But what fills the space is violence.

Many have asked, and with good reason: Do we need another Joker movie? Yet what we do need — badly — are comic-book films that have a verité gravitas, that unfold in the real world, so that there’s something more dramatic at stake than whether the film in question is going to rack up a billion-and-a-half dollars worldwide. “Joker” manages the nimble feat of telling the Joker’s origin story as if it were unprecedented. We feel a tingle when Bruce Wayne comes into the picture; he’s there less as a force than an omen. And we feel a deeply deranged thrill when Arthur, having come out the other side of his rage, emerges wearing smeary make-up, green hair, an orange vest and a rust-colored suit.

When he dances on the long concrete stairway near his home, like a demonic Michael Jackson, with Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” bopping on the soundtrack, it’s a moment of transcendent insanity, because he’s not trying to be “the Joker.” He’s just improvising, going with the flow of his madness. And when he gets his fluky big shot to go on TV, we think we know what’s going to happen (that he’s destined to be humiliated), but what we see, instead, is a monster reborn with a smile. And lo and behold, we’re on his side. Because the movie does something that flirts with danger — it gives evil a clown-mask makeover, turning it into the sickest possible form of cool.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Competition), Aug. 31, 2019. MPAA rating: R. Running time: 122 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a DC Films in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, BRON Creative, A Joint Effort production. Producers: Bradley Cooper, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Todd Phillips. Executive producers: Richard Baratta, Bruce Berman, Jason Cloth, Joseph Garner, Aaron L. Gilbert, Walter Hamada, Michael E. Uslan.
• Crew: Director: Todd Phillips. Screenplay: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver. Camera (color, widescreen): Lawrence Sher. Editor: Jeff Groth. Music: Hildur Gudnadóttir.
• With: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Zazie Beetz, Brett Cullen, Brian Tyree Henry, Marc Maron, Dante Pereira-Olson, Douglas Hodge, Sharon Washington.

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‘joker’: what the critics are saying.

Reviews are in for Todd Phillips' standalone origin story 'Joker,' which stars Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic villain.

By Trilby Beresford

Trilby Beresford

Associate Editor

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Reviews are in for Todd Phillips’ standalone origin story  Joker , which stars Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic villain. 

The film, written by Phillips and Scott Silver, is described as a gritty portrayal of a character ostracized by society. Robert De Niro, Marc Maron and Zazie Beetz also star.

For The Hollywood Reporter , David Rooney declares the film “grippingly atmospheric,” highlighting the sensational, unsettling and weirdly affecting performance from Phoenix who inhabits the Joker with an insanity both pitiful and fearsome. “He brings pathos to a pathetically disenfranchised character,” emphasizes the critic. Rooney goes on to suggest that since the screenplay is smartly written, anchoring the story “in a fiercely divided city with echoes of a contemporary, morally bankrupt America,” the movie may well appeal to a wide audience that includes those who don’t typically seek out superhero fanfare. Praising the cinematography by Lawrence Sher and production design by Mark Friedberg, both of which visually support the protagonist’s “simmering psychosis,” Rooney concludes that this “neo-noir psychological character study” is “arguably the best Batman-adjacent movie since The Dark Knight .”

Jim Vejvoda writes in IGN , “Drawing its spirit and style from classic ’70s and ’80s films like Taxi Driver , The King of Comedy , A Clockwork Orange  and Dog Day Afternoon , director Todd Phillips’ Joker presents a Gotham City that is unmistakably a stand-in for the hellish New York City of the era.” The critic goes on to say that the film may ask viewers to empathize with its central protagonist, “but it doesn’t ask us to forgive him for his increasingly evil choices.” Noting that Phoenix’s character is in nearly every scene, Vejvoda describes feeling as if he were in “Arthur’s tortured headspace” for the entire time. He says the film belongs to Phoenix, who “delivers a tour de force.” Concluding his review, Vejvoda declares, Joker isn’t just an awesome comic book movie, it’s an awesome movie, period.”

Forbes critic Mark Hughes calls Joker one of the best films in 2019, noting that the performance from Phoenix is “fearless and stunning in its emotional depth and physicality.” He goes on to say, “The fact is, everyone is going to be stunned by what Phoenix accomplishes, because it’s what many thought impossible — a portrayal that matches and potentially exceeds that of The Dark Knight’s Clown Prince of Crime.” Hughes suggests that Phoenix will be a frontrunner at the Academy Awards, going so far as predicting a win for the actor. “The Joker becomes a living, breathing, human manifestation of evil, and the film serves to both demystify him and also make it clear that even what we “see” of his origin is subject to question — unreliable narrators being what they are, the Joker being the most unreliable of all narrators, and the fact of his literal humanness doing nothing to remove our awareness something purely cruel and monstrous resides within his soul.”

In CinemaBlend , Eric Eisenberg notes that the film is a “radical interpretation that requires a transformative, thoroughly committed performance, and it’s remarkable to see Joaquin Phoenix take this role and play it as though he were the first actor to ever take it on (and in a way, he is).” The critic writes that Phillips deserves recognition for his reinvention of the story’s classic setting, “with his vision of Gotham standing in sharp relief of the same city portrayed by Christopher Nolan or Tim Burton.” Eisenberg concludes his review by recognizing the film may be viewed as controversial, but that it opens up many conversations about what is real and what is fantasy.

Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson writes that there is an “undeniable style and propulsive charge to Joker , a film that looms and leers with nasty inexorability.” He calls the film exhilarating in a number of ways, but notes that it also may be “irresponsible propaganda for the very men it pathologizes.” Lawson asks, “Is Joker celebratory or horrified? Or is there simply no difference, the way there wasn’t in Natural Born Killers or a myriad of other “America, man” movies about the freeing allure of depravity?” The critic is unable to answer his own question, at least, not after a single viewing. He suggests that viewers seek out Joker to answer this question, and others, for themselves. 

Tim Grierson of Screen Daily says that a noticeably gaunt Phoenix “never lets us forget that a monster will soon emerge, but he’s such a haunting figure that we lament when that transformation occurs. And although the actor skillfully illuminates Arthur’s pre-Joker disintegration, he also proves to be a pretty terrific Joker during the film’s final stretches.” Grierson declares that Phoenix’s take on the character is arguably the most human, and the most tragic. Echoing the words of other critics, Grierson writes that the film belongs to Phoenix, who offers a nuanced interpretation of someone who is helpless and troubled and struggling to find connection.

For the BBC , Nicholas Barber writes that Joker “is a dark, dingy drama about urban decay, alienation and anti-capitalist protests, with a distinctive retro vision and a riveting central performance by Joaquin Phoenix. Whether these differences make it much better than other supervillain movies, however, is open to question.” Barber praises the styling and other performances of the film, but ultimately calls it “a flimsy, two-hour supervillain origin movie” where the viewer is waiting for Arthur to become the Clown Prince of Crime. While Barber admits that he might revisit the Joker in a sequel, he argues that — and his review rests on this debate — the idea that Phoenix’s Joker is more mature and intelligent than previous supervillains is very questionable. 

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• Cast & crew
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Arthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrac... Read all Arthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrace the life of chaos in Gotham City. Arthur Fleck, a party clown and a failed stand-up comedian, leads an impoverished life with his ailing mother. However, when society shuns him and brands him as a freak, he decides to embrace the life of chaos in Gotham City.

• Todd Phillips
• Scott Silver
• Joaquin Phoenix
• Robert De Niro
• Zazie Beetz
• 11.5K User reviews
• 722 Critic reviews
• 59 Metascore
• 120 wins & 245 nominations total

Top cast 99+

• Arthur Fleck

• Murray Franklin

• Sophie Dumond

• Penny Fleck

• Thomas Wayne

• Detective Burke

• Detective Garrity

• Hoyt Vaughn
• GiGi Dumond

• Gene Ufland

• Barry O'Donnell

• Alfred Pennyworth
• Bruce Wayne

• Martha Wayne

• Social Worker
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Which Real-Life Comedian Inspired 'Joker'?

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Did you know

• Trivia Joaquin Phoenix called perfecting the Joker's laugh the toughest part of playing the character.
• Goofs In one of the scenes, Joker is running in his big clown shoes and a second later he's running in his black street shoes.

Arthur Fleck : [written in notebook] The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't.

• Crazy credits The Warner Brothers logo is the Warner Communications logo used in the 1970s and early 1980s, in fitting with this film's 1981 setting.
• Connections Featured in That Star Wars Girl: Joker Trailer Reaction and Breakdown (2019)
• Soundtracks Temptation Rag Written by Henry Lodge Performed by Claude Bolling Courtesy of Decca Records France Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 11.5K

• kdagoulis26
• Oct 3, 2019

Our Complex Relationship With On-Screen Clowns

• How long is Joker? Powered by Alexa
• Is this an origin story for the Heath Ledger Joker or is this the same Joker from the comics?
• Did Joaquin Phoenix really go mad, losing 52 lbs. (24 kg) of weight?
• Who plays Batman, the other side of the coin, and why isn't he credited?
• October 4, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official Instagram
• 1150 Anderson Ave, The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA (Joker stairs scenes)
• Warner Bros.
• Village Roadshow Pictures
• BRON Studios
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $55,000,000 (estimated)
• $335,477,657
• $96,202,337
• Oct 6, 2019
• $1,078,958,629

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Digital

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