JOKER : Tuesday 8th October 2019.

'JOKER' which I saw earlier this week is here finally and is the eagerly awaited, much hyped, highly anticipated and largely acclaimed MA15+ rated American psychological thriller based on the DC Comics character starring Joaquin Phoenix as Batman's arch nemesis, the Joker. Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Todd Phillips whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'The Hangover', 'The Hangover Part II', 'The Hangover Part III', 'War Dogs', 'Due Date', 'School for Scoundrels', 'Road Trip' and 'Starsky & Hutch'. The film acts as an origin story for the Joker and is not intended to form any part of the DCEU, rather a launchpad for DC Black - a series of DC standalone movies. The film Premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival at the end of August where it won the Golden Lion, the festival's highest prize, was released in the US last week too, cost US$55M to make and has received positive Reviews from Critics, with particular praise for Phoenix's performance. The film has scored the biggest October opening, finishing the weekend with a global total of US$234M, and a total worldwide Box Office take so far standing at US$282M. It also set career records for Phoenix, Phillips, and De Niro, and was the fourth-largest debut for an R-rated film of all-time.

Set in 1981, party clown and aspiring stand up comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) lives with his mother Penny (Frances Conroy) in a run down apartment in Gotham City. The city is itself becoming increasingly run down too with rising unemployment, a breakdown in basic infrastructure services, budget cutbacks in essential services, and escalating crime. After a gang of youths attack Arthur in an alleyway leaving him battered and bruised, one of his co-workers Randall (Glenn Fleshler) gifts him a gun with six bullets to fend off any future would be thugs and attackers. When returning home later that night, Arthur comes across Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), a single mother in the elevator and befriends her. It's not long before they start dating, and Arthur subsequently invites her to one of his stand-up comedy shows.

One day while entertaining sick children at a hospital, and dressed in his full clown gear and make-up, his gun falls out of his pocket onto the floor in full view of the young kids, some parents and hospital staff. Arthur is subsequently fired. On his way home later that night, and still in his clown costume and made-up, Arthur is set upon by three Wayne Enterprise businessmen who first mock a young girl sat all alone and then turn attention to Arthur when he starts to laugh uncontrollably (a neurological disorder that causes him to laugh out loud at inappropriate times). He shoots two of his assailants dead in self-defence and executes a third trying to flee on the subway steps. The vicious murders are quickly condemned by Gotham's elite - especially one Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), the head of Wayne Enterprises, who is considering running for the post of City Mayor, and who brands those jealous of more successful city dwellers as 'clowns'. This sparks demonstrations against Gotham's rich, with many protesters on the streets donning clown masks in Arthur's image.

Arthur's takes Sophie to his comedy show and it goes off very poorly, with him laughing uncontrollably right from the off, and then he has difficulty in landing his jokes. Popular talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) mocks Arthur live on-air by showing clips from his recent failed stand-up routine on his show, viewed by Arthur on his TV at home in his apartment.

Later, Arthur intercepts a letter written by Penny to Thomas, whom she used to work for years previously, and refers to him with fond memories. In the letter, she claims that Arthur is Thomas's illegitimate son, and he then berates his mother for hiding the truth from him for all these years. Arthur pays a visit to Wayne Manor, and talks to Thomas' young son, Bruce (Dante Pereira-Olson), through the gates of the estate but flees after a scuffle with family butler Alfred Pennyworth (Douglas Hodge). Following a visit from two Gotham City Police Department detectives - Garrity and Burke (Bill Camp and Shea Whigham respectively) investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny suffers a stroke and is admitted to hospital.

At a black-tie public event showcasing a classic Charlie Chaplin film, Arthur confronts Thomas about what he now knows about him being his real 'Dad'. Thomas tells him that Penny is delusional and was assigned to a mental asylum and that he was in fact adopted. Thomas by now was informed of Arthur's visit to his property the day before, orders him to stay away and promptly thumps him to the ground with a hefty punch to the face. In denial, Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and steals Penny's case file which the orderly had to dig out of the archives because it was over thirty years ago. The file states that Penny adopted Arthur as a baby and repeatedly allowed her abusive boyfriend to harm them both. Penny alleged that Thomas used his influence to invent the adoption and commit her to the asylum to hide their affair for fear of public shame and the impact upon his family name and business. Distraught, Arthur goes to the hospital and kills Penny by suffocating her with a pillow.

In going home that night, Arthur enters the unlocked door of Sophie's apartment, has a look around and sits on the sofa holding his head in his hands. Sophie's comes out of her young daughters bedroom and is both surprised and shocked to see Arthur there. Seemingly frightened, she immediately asks him to leave. Arthur is seen exiting the apartment and walking down the hallway towards his own apartment, with their previous 'relationship' having all been fragments of Arthur's overactive imagination. Once inside his apartment, he rips out the contents of his fridge, shelves and all, climbs inside, and closes the door behind him.

The next day the phone rings in Arthur's apartment, and answering it he is invited to appear on Murray's talk show due to the unforeseen popularity of his failed stand-up comedy routine clips. As he prepares himself for his live interview, he is visited by his former co-workers Randall and midget Gary (Leigh Gill). Arthur murders Randall with a pair of scissors, while Gary cowers in the corner completely shocked by what he has just witnessed. Arthur chooses to leave Gary unharmed for treating him well in the past, and allows him to leave the apartment. Having dyed his hair dark green, painted on his white clown face and dressed in his best red suite with orange waistcoat, while on the way to the studio, Arthur is pursued by Garrity and Burke onto a train filled with clown protesters all travelling to a rally in the city. Burke accidentally shoots a protester while giving chase on a crowded train carriage and incites a riot which then spills out onto the platform, allowing Arthur to escape in the ensuing chaos.

Arthur arrives at the television studio where the Murray Franklin Show is broadcast from. Before the show goes live, Arthur asks that Murray introduce him as 'Joker', a nod to Murray's previous derisory comments about his routine. When the curtain goes up, Arthur walks out to a warm reception and is welcomed to the stage by Murray. 

Within minutes Murray asks Joker to tell a joke from his new material, and he responds with a tasteless one that irks the audience. He then goes on to admit that he killed the three businessmen on the train much to the horror of Murray and his audience, and begins a rant about how society has abandoned the many disenfranchised citizens, and how Murray mocked him. Arthur pulls out a gun and shoots Murray in the head at point blank range killing him instantly live on television, he then unloads another round into Murray's now lifeless chest.

Arthur is promptly arrested as riots break out across Gotham City. One rioter wearing the trademark clown mask confronts the Wayne family in a dark and lonely alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha, sparing the young Bruce. Rioters in an ambulance crash into the Police car carrying Arthur and free him, placing his unconscious body on the bonnet of the vehicle. He comes around soon afterwards, rises to his feet still on the bonnet and dances to the cheers of the gathered crowd. He tastes that he is bleeding from his mouth, and he uses his own blood to paint a smile on his face. In the closing scene assumed to be in Arkham Asylum, Arthur laughs to himself telling his psychiatrist that she would not understand his joke. Arthur is then seen exiting the interview room leaving behind a trail of blood red footprints on the white tiled floor, before being chased down by an orderly.

'Joker' has certainly divided the Critics and polarised the audiences, and it's easy to see why. On the one hand Phoenix, who appears in just about every frame of the film, inhibits his Arthur Fleck character with a nuanced and mesmerising performance of a wannabe stand-up comedian and professional clown who is emotionally and mentally unhinged to the point where he descends into homicidal madness, ultimately becoming the Joker. Phillips has also crafted a believable and relatable story grounded in the real world whose message resonates as much today as it would have done when the film is set - societal breakdown, riots in the streets, mass indiscriminate killings and the general ignorance of society towards those in less fortunate positions than ourselves. And, when the violence comes it does so graphically and clinically and without any remorse, and yet we are drawn to sympathise with the Clown Prince of Crime, because society has turned its back on him, created a monster and he is the victim of an uncaring, corrupt and violent world. On the other hand, at times it's a hard watch for the way its portrays mental illness, drags a little in places, and feels somewhat derivative of classic Scorsese offerings 'Taxi Driver' and 'The King of Comedy' both of which get nods in this outing. As an origin story, it gets to the very roots of the bleak maniacal world of an emerging monster that will be debated long after the end credits have rolled, providing a notable back story that gives way to Jack Nicholson's and Heath Ledger's portrayal of this clown faced antagonist.

'Joker' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-