The Fantasy Review’s review of Joker (2019), and a recap of what happened before the sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, comes out Friday 4th October, 2024.
Spoiler-filled Review & Recap of Joker (2019)
This is a full review and recap of Joker (2019), so it is obviously full of spoilers and shouldn’t be read if you want to watch this almost-perfect movie in the future.
Everything Must Go
Joker opens on Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) putting his clown makeup on in the mirror of a run-down changing room. Fleck tries to make himself smile, but it’s kind of hard to do that when you look like a bad Gene Simmons impersonator.
As he does this, though, a tear runs eye makeup down his cheek and it’s the perfect introduction to the movie. He is trying so hard to smile, so hard to be happy, to the point of forcing his face into the shape of a smile, but he can’t lie to himself. He is too honest for that.
So, Arthur Fleck works as an advertiser, swinging a cardboard poster about for a local store that is closing down. Not surprising in Gotham, really, although this version of Gotham looks a little too light, too much like the normal world for me. I much prefer the Matt Reeves adaptation of Gotham we see in The Batman (2022) and his The Penguin TV series too.
Joaquin Phoenix embodies this character right from the first few seconds he is on screen. Even his billboard swinging and dancing encapsulates so much of this broken man who will become the Joker. I remember watching this for the first time in the cinema in 2019 and falling in love with this portrayal immediately.
Fleck has his billboard stolen by some kids just mucking about and he chases them. Probably not a great idea if you are so outnumbered, but he’s desperate and the world isn’t fair.
The kids run down an ally and wait for him at the end, smashing his face in with the billboard. They then proceed to kick the shit out of him.
That image of Fleck lying on the floor, badly beaten, shows that this is a man who is already at his lowest point. For him, there is nothing to lose. In fact, perhaps this is what he wanted. At least when he is getting beaten up, he might feel something.
These slow camera zooms are very effective in Joker, and this scene is an example of why and how they are used. The camera zooms slowly out from Fleck lying on the floor, beaten and broken.
As it zooms out, he barely moves, slowly reaching for the broken billboard and then to his ribs. Instead of flicking away to another scene immediately after some action, we as the audience have to sit with the tragedy and horror of the event instead, like Arthur has to.
This puts us more into the main character’s mind, develops a connection with him, and helps us root for him, despite knowing who he is and the horrors he will/might cause.
You know this is a good movie when it takes 500 words to talk about the first 3 minutes in this Joker review and recap.
Is It Just Me?
After the awesome title card pops up, we see the first scene of Arthur Fleck laughing. Now, this laugh is not a normal laugh. It is an awful, chilling, forced laugh that makes his face look pained, almost like he is crying.
And when the laughter ends, he stares down, not meeting the therapist’s eyes, and says, “is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?”
When the therapist asks about Arthur’s journal, she then asks if he brought it with him. This is the first genuine smile he does in the movie. What does he find funny? The idea that the journal might help him feel better? The idea that he could ever feel better anyway?
Or, is it thinking about what he has in his journal that makes him smile? Is he reminiscing? This is a fascinating moment of character exploration and definitely makes you want to keep watching.
He gets the journal out and says he’s been using it for other stuff, like funny thoughts, etc.
“I just hope my death makes more cents than my life”
The journal is full of disturbing images, scrawled handwriting, and a lot of depressing thoughts. A section that catches my eye comes after the “cents” joke:
“imagine your hole life ends on a sidewalk. I wonder how old he was, how long noone cared about him”
(spelling mistake is Arthur’s)
This section is clearly a response to him being beaten by those kids earlier in the movie. “I don’t want to die with peepl just stepping over me. I want peeple to see me.” This quote comes just before the “cents” joke and gives some context to Fleck’s frame of mind.
He is a nobody. He feels like he is worth nothing to anyone. That is why he is “pursuing a career in comedy” – he wants to be seen, to be admired, and to be appreciated. He wants to die knowing that people know who he is and what he stands for.
The therapist asks Arthur if coming to see her helps, but he says he felt better when he was locked up in the hospital. At least there, I suppose, he felt like there was something easy about not having to be responsible for his own life. Someone else was in charge of when he ate, when he slept, when he relaxed. All aspects of life can be overwhelming when you are depressed.
Forgive My Laughter, I have a Condition
After his therapy session, Fleck is on a bus and a kid in front of him is staring. I think it shows a great deal of characterisation that Arthur’s first instinct is to try to make the kid laugh (which he succeeds in doing).
It’s interesting, because did he do this for the kid or to make himself feel special? Like, finally, here is someone who can appreciate my talents?
When the kid’s mum tells Arthur to stop, he starts laughing. This is when we learn more about his condition (when he gives the mum a card), where he laughs even when that does not match how he feels.
As he walks home from the bus stop, even Fleck’s walk conveys an aspect of his character. He is tired, dejected. His shoulders are hunched and his head hangs low. It is safe to say that this is not a happy movie.
Fleck returns home and we meet his mum, who he lives with in a dirty apartment. We learn that even in his mental condition, he has to look after his mum who is also sick and, seemingly, bedbound.
The way he talks to his mum is so natural, so loving, so gentle. It is the complete opposite of the person we see around his therapist or strangers on the bus. He is happiest when he is with her. It is the only admiration and love he knows.
This is also when we learn that she used to work for Thomas Wayne, Batman/Bruce Wayne’s father. Despite this movie not being about superheroes, it still needs to pop in some easter eggs for the fans!
Come Sit, It’s Starting!
And here we are introduced to “Live With Murray Franklin” – a show Arthur and his mum sit and watch together excitedly. Here we see Arthur’s obsession with Murray and his desire to emulate this man he admires so much.
Or, at least, he wants that kind of admiration for himself.
And again, we are only 11 minutes into the movie and this Joker review and recap is already 1200 words-long!
Murray’s show begins and we are thrust into the studio audience, where Arthur has placed himself in his delusion. Then we are taken to crazy land.
Murray hears Arthur shout that he loves him, from the crowd, and they get the lights up to show Arthur to everyone.
“There’s something special about you, Arthur. I can tell.”
Murray – In Arthur’s delusion
This is all Arthur wants to hear from his hero, so it is the first thing his delusion shows him. His conversation with Murray becomes casual and friendly quickly, with the delusion quickly showing Arthur’s devotion to his mother as admirable. He’s then invited down to the stage by Murray.
When the lights go down, Murray then says he would give everything up in a heartbeat “to have a kid like you.” All Arthur wants and needs is a father – he has “been the man of my house for as long as I can remember” and I think he hates it.
Like with preferring the hospital over going to therapy in the outside world, I think that Arthur believes if he had a father, the responsibilities he carries would instead be dealt with by his father. And to an extent, that is true, like earning money for food, and feeding his sick mother.
Then the delusion ends, and we see Arthur smile to himself in bed.
Another Day in Chuckle Town
The next scene is hard to look at. Arthur’s body, covered in bruises from the beating on the street, is incredibly malnourished. He must give nearly all the food he buys to his mother, starving himself so that she might eat.
You can see that his muscles have deteriorated as he struggles to even loosen the laces on his clown shoes.
We meet Randall (Glenn Fleshler), a colleague of Arthur’s, and one of the only people we have seen ask Arthur if he is okay. Randall heard about the beating Arthur took from those kids, and encourages Fleck to take a gun to protect himself, so they won’t mess with him again.
Hoyt Vaughn (Josh Pais), Arthur’s boss, says he has to take money from Fleck’s paycheck unless he returns the sign. You remember, the one that was broken on Arthur’s face?
This is an extreme if a little silly example of how unfair the world is, and what teaches Arthur to believe everything is broken and fucked. The whole world is against him, and only him, and he needs to demand respect from the world or it will take everything he has.
Arthur just stands there and gives him a look that screams he wants to kill his boss. Phoenix has an incredible talent of making his mouth smile but keeping his eyes looking deadpan into the distance, and it’s terrifying. Uncanny.
To make himself feel better, Arthur kicks the crap out of some rubbish bins outside the building. He then makes his way home, once again.
So Awful, Isn’t It Mommy?
In the lift of his building, Arthur meets Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) and connects to her immediately. We know after watching Joker that much of this connection is one-sided, another delusion, but there are not many hints of that in these scenes. This is how real Arthur sees these interactions.
However, one hint we do get that Arthur is imagining the connection is when Sophie goes to open her apartment door, she sees Arthur pretend to shoot himself in the head (like she did in the lift), and it scares her. She looks scared and can’t get the key in the door fast enough.
Arthur gives his mother a bath. This is yet another scene that shows how much responsibility he has in his life, and how little time he has for himself when he is at home. Looking after his mother is a job, even if he looks genuinely happy while he is doing it.
This is why they often talk about Thomas Wayne’s letters not coming through the post. His mother keeps expecting them, perhaps with kind words or some money to help the Flecks get by. Yet another person who has betrayed Arthur and his family, putting them in the difficult position they are in.
“Thomas Wayne is a good man. If he knew how we were living…If he saw this place, it would make him sick.”
Penny Fleck
Arthur then tells his mother his comedy material is almost ready to be taken to a live audience and she responds by saying, “don’t you have to be funny to be a comedian?”
You can see how something like this might twist Arthur’s mind even more towards resentfulness against the world. Even his own mother, who he loves and looks after, starving himself so that she might eat, bathing her when she needs it, doesn’t believe in him and refuses to support him in his passions.
In the next scene he has Randall’s gun out in the living room and points it at his mother’s chair, clearly fantasizing about killing her. This would have two benefits to his twisted mind: he would be rid of a responsibility he doesn’t want, and he would have revenge on her for not respecting him like he believes he should be respected.
But then he cocks the gun and dances with it, and shoots it at the wall. He seems surprised that the noise is loud, almost like he was lost in a delusion and we were seeing it from the outside, when he was seeing something very different from the inside of his mind.
The Comedy Club
Arthur watches Sophie, from his apartment block, drop her kid off at school. He’s clearly stalking her. He follows her onto the train and watches her from the next carriage. He then follows her off the train into the city but doesn’t follow her into the building she disappears into.
The next scene is of Arthur in a comedy club, taking notes of the act on stage. It becomes obvious quickly that the audience is laughing at the punchlines, but Arthur is not. Arthur does, however, laugh at the preamble to the punchlines.
I am not sure what this means, if it means much at all, but it certainly makes him stand out as different to everyone else in the room. That is enough to show us a man who does not fit in with regular people, a man who thinks differently to everyone else.
Back home, Arthur writes what looks like his funniest joke (to him), and in some ways, it is a joke:
“the worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you DONT”
This is one of those instances where it is funny because it’s true, but because it’s true, it really isn’t funny, which I think he will find out for himself in due course.
Stalking is Romantic Now
Sophie turns up at the door and any normal person watching this would realise she is either mentally ill or this is one of Arthur’s delusions. She asks Arthur if he was following her, he says yes, and she just accepts it, almost like it was romantic.
In this conversation, he makes a joke about coming into her workplace with a joke and she responds by saying, “you’re so funny, Arthur.” This line is what makes it one of Fleck’s delusions.
In everything we have seen of him so far, Arthur craves compliments, and one of his main passions is comedy, so he wants people to find him funny and admire that about him. In a situation where he fancies the girl next door? Yes, all he wants is for her to find him funny, and to find his stalking romantic.
Et tu, Brute?
In the next scene, Arthur is singing If Your’re Happy and You Know It to a group of sick kids in a hospital – which is as bleak as it sounds – and you just know what is about to happen. As he’s happily stomping his feet, the gun falls onto the floor.
Oopsie.
This was clearly the last straw and his boss fired him. But worst of all, it turns out that Randall, the guy who gave him the gun and was supposedly his friend, called him crazy behind his back (or something), so not only is Arthur fired at this moment, but he has also been betrayed.
Creeps on a Train
This next scene is dark and every woman’s nightmare scenario when taking public transport alone. Three creeps in suits pester a woman on an empty carriage, in which Arthur is the only other passenger, sitting on the other end, alone.
Arthur’s starts “laughing,” which at least gives the woman a chance to run off safely.
The rest of the scene is pretty sinister, with the lights flashing on and off, and the guys come to surround Fleck, and beat the crap out of him. They’re laughing, mimicking him, while they kick his fallen body.
But unlike at the start of Joker, Arthur has a gun.
Fleck kills two of them, and one runs, screaming for help. To be fair, they probably should have expected this kind of response to their actions in a city like Gotham.
This is such a pivotal moment for Arthur in the movie. Yes, his first kills were in self-defense, and I don’t think anyone can really argue otherwise. Should he have been carrying a gun? Well, I’m English, so morally, I don’t think so, but he’s in Gotham and everyone has a gun.
After he kills those guys, however, he chases the final creep in a suit off the train and down the platform. He chases him. With the gun pointing towards the creep. These are not the actions of someone protecting their lives, these are the actions of someone looking for retribution.
Arthur catches up to the creep, puts a bullet in his back, then empties the rest of the clip into his victim. There is no fear in his face at this moment. No remorse. No desperation. His facial expression is one of need, gratification, and anger.
This is not a good man.
Aftermath
Arthur sprints away, far away, and hides in a public toilet. After taking some deep breaths – too few, if you ask me, considering how much he ran and how malnourished he is – he proceeds to dance.
Alongside the soundtrack in this moment, the dancing is haunting. It feels like a coping mechanism for the stress he is feeling in the moment, a way to escape the madness. Phoenix is a genius: despite the horrific nature of the murder he just committed, less than a minute ago, the way this dancing talks to the audience, conveying the hopelessness, the desire to be free from the chaos… It’s hauntingly beautiful.
The scene ends with Arthur’s escapism tipping into delusion and he walks home, his shoulders raised and his head high, filled with more confidence after killing those men than he has had for the whole of the movie. He knocks on Sophie’s door, kisses her, and the door closes.
Full of Confidence
When Arthur packs up his stuff from the clown place he worked at, he also seemed full of confidence, all of a sudden. Maybe it was the imaginary sex with Sophie, which might have had some impact, but I think it was killing those guys on the train.
Finally, he has found a way to control the world around him and feel powerful, potentially respected. He can kill people.
Everyone is talking about those subway murders, to the point that Thomas Wayne is on the TV and Arthur watches the news with his mother. It’s a little strange that this would be on the news in Gotham, or at least be able to grab the attention of Thomas Wayne, considering that this is Gotham and nothing new.
However, they mention the creeps were rich, well educated, and had good jobs. They were also white. The movie seems to be making the point that if the victims were poor, they would not be on the news. You can see from the frustration on Arthur’s face he might be thinking along the same lines.
“All I Have Are Negative Thoughts”
“You don’t listen, do you? I don’t think you ever listen. You just ask the same questions every week: How’s your job? Are you having any negative thoughts? All I have are negative thoughts.”
Arthur Fleck to his therapist
Arthur rants at his therapist in a stronger, calmer voice than he’s used with her, or anyone, before. His physical movements are purposeful, his eye contact is strong, and he looks comfortable.
This is completely opposite to how he was during the first therapy session we see at the start of the movie. If you remember, from the start of this Joker review, he was struggling with his “laughing” and his shoulders were hunched, he barely looked the therapist in the eyes…
This is a new man. And all because he killed people and now everyone is talking about him, or at least that’s how he perceives it. He is reveling in the media attention his murders have attracted, using that attention as a way of making himself feel real.
The therapist says they are cutting funding across the city, social services being a part of it, so his therapy sessions will be ending. If you compare this with Thomas Wayne talking about people not pulling themselves out of the gutter, looking down on people like Arthur, you wonder how those less well off are supposed to get their lives in order when things like social services are being cut…
The Comedy Club 2.0
Arthur is welcomed onto the stage at the comedy club and we see Sophie sitting in the audience. He can’t even get out a greeting to the audience because his “laughter” is uncontrollable with the nervousness of the situation.
It looks at points like the “laughter” is choking him, but it seems like when he sees Sophie smile at him in the audience, he is able to get some words out at last. However, his notebook, which he brought with him, flips over to a page revealing a pornographic image, and the audience can see it.
It’s disturbing. Feels like spiders are crawling up your back. If the vicious murder doesn’t make you dislike him, this will.
It’s strange, as the Joker movie never directly tells you when Arthur is having a delusion, but it gives you enough hints to work it out. It is from the moment he sees Sophie smile in the audience we know we are in another delusion, where the comedy routine apparently goes well, then he walks home with her.
Killer Clown
On this walk home, Arthur sees a newspaper cover with a picture of a clown on it, talking about the subway murders. He proceeds to smile at it, then mirror the face in the image. He is adoring this attention, but soon it will not be enough. He will realise no one is talking about him specifically, just a boogeyman, and there will be a new one next week.
I mean, his delusion even has Sophie call the “guy that did it” a hero – only a million left to go, or something. Perhaps Arthur now feels like he has found his purpose in life.
Thomas Wayne is Joker’s Father?
Arthur’s mum leaves a letter for Thomas Wayne out on the table and Arthur sits down to read it. It reveals that Arthur’s mum and Thomas Wayne had an intimate relationship and Arthur is Wayne’s bastard son.
Now, obviously mental health runs in this family, so this might all be a fabricated delusion from her mind. We can’t trust anything in Joker to tell us the “truth” of anything, but this is enough for Arthur to believe it.
This angers Arthur and he goes to his mum who screams, “you’re gonna kill me!” which could be taken as hyperbole, but also it might be a genuine fear of her’s. I mean, surely if anyone is going to know the real Arthur and what he is capable of, it would be his mother?
Arthur’s mum reveals she had an affair with Thomas Wayne and had to sign an NDA. So, Arthur goes on a trip to Wayne Manor and meets a little Bruce from the other side of the fence.
This is where this movie fails a little bit, in my opinion. This is a movie about Arthur and the beginnings of his Joker alter-ego. Of course, Joker is forever linked to the Bruce Wayne/Batman character, but that doesn’t mean we needed any kind of reference to Bruce in the Joker movie.
This event does work as an additional betrayal for Arthur to latch on to and spiral more into darkness. However, there was and is enough going on for that spiral to continue anyway, without this additional Batman easter egg that mostly serves to pull viewers out of the movie and think about Batman instead.
If we ignore the negatives of this storyline, it is a visceral scene here when Alfred comes out and tells Arthur that his mother was delusional, “a sick woman.” Arthur grabs the butler by the throat in anger.
This is anger at him and his mother being disrespected, yes, but it is also perhaps anger at something good (Thomas Wayne helping them) being a lie, and never coming to pass. This is where his last hope goes to die.
A Bad Day Gets Worse
Arthur’s day continues to get worse when he returns home to find his mother being transported into an ambulance, dying. Without her, what else does he have left in his life to keep him rooted to some kind of sanity?
Arthur has a smoke outside the hospital and two police officers come over to ask about the subway murders. It turns out they had talked to his mother and she hyperventilated and had a stroke. Something tells me she knows it was Arthur, because she understands his nature and always worried about the day the police show up.
After he shoos away the cops, Arthur sits in the hospital with his mother and Sophie is there next to him. It makes sense that his mind would conjure her up, as that delusion is all he has left to offer him love and support.
And then it gets worse. Again.
You Should Have Listened to Your Mother
Halfway into this Joker review and recap, we get to the inciting incident of all inciting incidents. No one can say that Todd Phillips didn’t include enough reasons for Arthur to become a homicidal maniac.
As Arthur is sitting there, waiting for a coffee that will never come from his delusional vision of Sophie, and worrying about his mum, Murray comes on the TV in the room. It turns out, Arthur’s latest comedy routine has gone viral, and not for a good reason.
Initially, Arthur was happy to see himself on screen. His dream had come true! Murray noticed him and was talking about his comedy on TV!
But then, Murray insults Arthur. He mocks the “laughing,” implies he should have steered clear of comedy, and that no one finds him funny.
The beating drums of the soundtrack in the background at this moment is perfect. You can hear Arthur’s anger building – something is stirring in him and the world had better watch out.
We Are All Clowns
Back home and depressed, sniffing his mum’s pillow, Arthur is perked up by the news on the TV. They are showing clips of the movement started by Arthur’s murders: an anti-rich movement, with extremists calling for killing the rich as the answer to all their problems.
As you might expect, this makes Arthur smile. Here is something he can be respected for, by people who openly praise his actions (even if they don’t know it was him).
Arthur goes to attend one of these anti-rich demonstrations and sneaks into the cinema that the protesters are outside, disguised as an usher. He’s enjoying the film but is brought back to reality when he sees Thomas and Martha Wayne watching the show too, so he follows Thomas Wayne to the bathroom.
Arthur introduces himself to Thomas Wayne and it gets revealed that Arthur is not only definitely not Wayne’s son, but he was also adopted. Arthur is completely rejected by the man he keeps calling “Dad,” – Thomas Wayne punches Arthur in the face and walks away.
Honey, I Was in Arkham
After spending some time cooling off in the fridge, Arthur wakes up to a call inviting him on to the Murray Franklin Show. His response is… cold. He agrees, but when he would have been dancing and laughing a few days ago, after everything that has happened he is cold and emotionless in his response.
He’s thinking. A plan is in the making.
Arthur visits Arkham. This is the first time we see Arkham in the movie and while the silent screaming of the patient in the lift made for a promise of tone, Joker doesn’t really lean into the comic book-madness of the place.
Arkham, in Joker, is just a normal hospital. A bit run-down, sure, and is obviously not a nice place, but there is nothing scary or ominous about the place.
Perhaps this is because it hasn’t had a Joker in it yet…
So, Arthur has gone to find records on his mother from her time in Arkham about 30 years ago.
“How does someone wind up in here? Have…all the people committed crimes?”
Arthur to the clerk
He then proceeds to tell the man behind the desk that “there was this time I ended up taking down some people. I thought it was going to bother me, but it really hasn’t.” The way Phoenix delivers those lines, especially, “…but it really hasn’t,” is one of the reasons he might just be the best Joker we have ever seen on the screen, and he isn’t even the Joker yet.
So, Arthur’s mum, Penny, was diagnosed with delusional psychosis, and narcissistic personality disorder.
Are you sure Arthur is adopted?
The clerk goes on to say that Penny was found to be a danger to her own child (Arthur) and then he stops. This implies Penny caused some serious trauma to Arthur when he was a child, a very young child at a pivotal point of his development, which must have been a large reason for why he is the way he is.
So, Arthur steals the file anyway, saving me from guessing any more!
Penny Fleck’s Difficult Past
Arthur’s mother, Penny Fleck, has a harrowing history (according to her psychiatric history and evaluation):
- On the 2nd November 1952, Penny Fleck was admitted to Arkham for the third time. She was 25 years-old
- She has a history of drug abuse
- She had an abusive boyfriend
- She suffered from delusional psychosis and narcissistic personality disorder
The following clips also indicate that her behavior was “bizzare” and there might have been some “physical abuse” done to Arthur, done by the abusive boyfriend.
In this file we also see Penny’s adoption application for Arthus. Under “Name” it says, “unknown” as he was abandoned, so his birth date is also “unknown.” Keeping Arthur’s past a mystery was the right decision for the movie. If we had gotten a fully-detailed backstory for Joker, with no mystery left, it would have been pretty unsatisfying.
I wasn’t a parent when I first watched Joker in 2019, so this scene hits harder rewatching it now. As you might expect, the childhood of the man who would become the Joker was darker than most people can even comprehend.
What Are You Doing in Here?
When Arthur returns to his apartment block, he sees Sophie in the lift, trying to cheer him up with a finger-gun to the head, but this time Arthur won’t indulge himself. He refuses to be comforted by the delusion.
He is too hurt. Too angry. Too betrayed.
Arthur enters an apartment we don’t recognise, only finding out it’s Sophie’s. He refused to face the delusion in the lift and instead sought out the real thing.
Arthur realises – or at least admits to himself – that his interactions with Sophie since the original meeting in the lift were all in his head. Honestly, you keep thinking there is nothing left to push this guy over the edge…
The music playing at this moment, as he marches down the corridor from Sophie’s apartment, is terrifyingly good. It’s intense, overwhelming, and the definition of ominous.
It’s so hard to watch this broken man “laughing,” half-naked in his living room. There is nothing good left for him in his life. The world is against him. Even his own mind is against him.
This does not excuse any of his previous or future actions, but it certainly explains them thoroughly. We, the viewers, are now deep in Arthur’s mind and completely understand why he is the way he is, making us empathetic towards him, even if we are horrified by his actions.
“I haven’t been happy one minute of my entire fucking life”
In a scene with no atmospheric music, light streaming through the windows like it’s an ordinary day, Arthur confronts his mother and suffocates her with a pillow. The lack of these additional elements makes this scene even more horrifying.
There are no distractions. We are forced to listen to the calm breathing of Arthur while his mother gasps and struggles under his weight. It’s visceral and awful and darker than it would have been with music or anything else.
After Penny dies, Arthur faces the window and breathes easily in the sunlight. There is no coming back from this. He has now embraced the violence as a means of escape from the horrors done to him and the impossibly hard life he has had. Again, this is Arthur’s logic, not mine!
Practice Makes Perfect
Arthur practices making his entrance to the Murray show, from walking in with the music, to his opening conversation starters. He is wearing the trousers and waistcoat of a purple, three-piece-suit, iconic for anyone with any familiarity with the character of the Joker.
This is the movie’s way of showing us that Arthur’s transformation into the Joker is almost complete. He only needs to put on the jacket.
There is a moment of this “rehearsal” where Arthur tells his main “joke” – he plans to shoot himself in the head on live TV. It is his smile, his relaxed demeanor, the warm sunlight on his face at that moment which makes me think that this man, in this specific moment, just wants everything to be over. He can be at peace.
Perhaps the violence has not completely taken over just yet.
I think I speak for every fan watching Joker when I say that the scene where he is dying his hair green is iconic as fuck. And it links back to his scene in the public bathroom after killing those creeps in suits – he dances, but this time not to escape any horror but to revel in what he is about to do.
Phoenix couldn’t act more like the Joker than he does in this scene, dancing around the bathroom in his pants stained with green hair dye.
It’s revealed he is modeling his look on the clown masks the anti-rich protesters had been wearing. He is fully embracing the movement and his role as its inadvertent architect.
“My mom died. I’m celebrating.”
Randall (the backstabber) and Gary from Arthur’s old work come over to see how he is after his mother’s death. The deadpan execution of the line “My mom died. I’m celebrating,” was absolutely perfect.
Randall is worried because the cops have been coming into work and asking everyone about the subway murders and don’t want it to get pinned on him, as it was his gun afterall. Not only does he immediately reveal that he doesn’t care that Arthur’s mum just died, but he also insults Gary for not being “regular sized” which makes Arthur give one of his sarcastic laughs.
Either the actors who play Randall and Gary are extremely good, or Phoenix’s performance scared the crap out of them, to the point where they didn’t even need to act. They just wanted to run screaming from the room.
Arthur’s brutality when he murders Randall is unbelievably savage. The only emotion on his face is concentration. Slowly, he is getting retribution on all those he thought were supposed to be on his side. First his mother, and now Randall, who pretended to be his friend.
This scene is ruined a little by Gary’s screaming which wasn’t the best acting in the world, but we’ll try to move past it. However, the following scene where he lets Gary go is important.
Why Did Arthur Spare Gary?
Arthur is out for retribution against those who have wronged him. This includes his mother and Randall, who he thinks betrayed him, and Murray too. The big “Society” is on his list of wrongdoers too, though.
Gary, someone who was unable to open the door to leave because the locking chain was too high for him to reach, also has plenty to be angry with the world about. The world is not automatically designed for people of his height, and it doesn’t care.
Arthur spares Gary for two reasons. One is that Gary didn’t betray him. But two, I think Arthur sees Gary as someone like him, someone “Society” has failed to accommodate.
The Promise of Violence
Obviously, we then get some badass music accompanying Arthur on his way out of the building to Live With Murray Franklin. His make-up is a fancier version of what he was putting on at the beginning of the movie.
I love the cyclical nature of some elements in Joker. It’s just such a satisfying narrative structure, like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. If I get across anything in this Joker review and recap, it should be that a well-designed narrative structure is essential to making a good story. Without it, you are left with hollow climaxes and a soulless story.
The infamous dancing on the stairs scene is iconic for many reasons, but one of those reasons is it is the final piece of a cyclical narrative structure.
The time Arthur dances is with Randall’s gun in his living room. This links his dancing with the potential for violence. He is almost reveling in it. There is a promise being made to the viewer here.
Then we see Arthur dance in the public bathroom after killing the creeps in suits. This is used as an escape from the horrors he just witnessed and committed, but also continues to link dancing with violence.
Then he dances again when he’s dying his hair green. This all but promises future violence, now associated with his new look.
And finally, we get the next piece of the puzzle. On the very stairs he struggled up at the beginning of the movie after being beaten by those kids, Arthur dances down the stairs in his full Joker costume. We know what is coming next.
There is a final piece to this puzzle, but that comes later.
Arthur is chased by the cops down to the train and escapes them in a crowd of anti-rich protesters. These protesters end up doing more than Arthur could have wished for, however, and beating the cops, completely incapacitating them.
He revels in the violence. These men who were out to stop him achieving his dreams got their comeuppance.
The Joker is in the Building
In the dressing room, Murray comes to personally welcome Arthur and gives him a few rules. Arthur asks to be introduced as “Joker” – the first time he refers to himself as such.
This was because Murray called Arthur “a joker” in his bit about Arthur’s viral comedy club clip, however, Murray doesn’t remember – or pretends not to. This fact, either way, will only make Arthur more determined than ever to continue with his plan.
Or, perhaps, it is the first step at changing that plan slightly.
Before Arthur is introduced, Murray mocks him once again, showing the clip and calling him crazy. That might have been the second step.
And now comes the final piece in the cyclical narrative structure of the dancing. Right before Arthur is introduced onto the stage with Murray, he dances. The movements are slow, calculating, almost mournful to match the soundtrack playing in the background. All that was promised in every previous dance scene now reaches its climax.
Introducing, Joker
The mournful dance becomes more upbeat as it evolves into part of Joker’s routine on stage, sauntering through the curtains to an applauding audience with a smile on his face and a skip in his step. This is Joker now, not Arthur. He left Arthur behind the curtain in the slower dance.
During Joker’s opening smalltalk with Murray, we see another cyclical narrative element come into play. When Murray insults Joker, with a sarcastic dig that makes the audience laugh, Joker gives the same sarcastic laugh he gave Randall just before he killed him.
Murray asks Joker for some new material, and we see Joker reach for his journal and see the page from before, with the “cents” joke. A little of Arthur comes through the mask then, seeping through, and I think this is when he changes his mind.
“I just hope my death makes more cents than my life”
His life has changed a lot since he wrote those words. He now thinks he is seen by people, he has an impact on the world around him. He is on the Live with Murray Franklin show, he’s killed five people, and he started a movement.
It is realising that his life can have, and has had, an impact on other people and the world around him that makes him question the validity of his old “joke”.
Instead, Joker tells a “joke” that doesn’t go down well and then he admits to the subway murders.
“I’ve got nothing left to lose. Nothing can hurt me anymore. My life is nothing but a comedy.”
This is where Joker opens up about what we have been watching go around his head for the last hour and forty minutes. He’s sick of the world that decides what is right and wrong, the world that has control over what is funny and what isn’t.
He tells Murray that the wall street creeps were “awful” and that’s why he killed them. The problem for us as an audience is that he isn’t lying. They were awful. The world is awful. Not everything is fair or the way we want it to be and many people are out for themselves.
Joker’s perspective on this is that there is no redemption for these people or the world. Everything must burn. It is a reaction we can understand, and see the twisted logic that brought him to this way of thinking, but he’s wrong. People and the world can change for the better, and it does.
“Everyone is awful these days. It’s enough to make anyone crazy.”
Murray has no time for these “excuses” and “self-pity” – he instead tells Joker he is wrong. “Not everyone is awful.” Joker’s face at this moment is one of pure loathing and hatred. It is almost as if he knows Murray is right and hates the man for pointing it out.
“What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash? I’ll tell you what you get. You get what you fucking deserve.”
After one of the best lines and best performances of the entire movie, Joker shoots Murray in the head and relaxes into his chair as chaos ensues. I could spend another 2000 words on this statement alone, but I won’t as this Joker review and recap is long enough as it is!
Gotham is Burning
These final scenes, after Joker is arrested, show the chaos he has created. This is all down to him. This is his movement. He thinks his life finally has meaning, that he has had an impact on the world and has been given the respect he deserves.
Joker has everything he ever wanted, and now, Gotham is burning.
I will ignore the implication that it was on this night Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed, as I really don’t think any of that lore needs to be in this movie. Joker should be able to stand on its own without forcing in some random references to Batman.
I’m not against this Joker having a Batman to go up against in the future. It might make for an interesting project. But this specific movie doesn’t need it.
Here Ends the Joker Review & Recap
Joker ends with Arthur locked up in Arkham, being interviewed. This is a beautiful (structurally speaking) link back to Arthur’s first therapy session we see at the beginning of the movie, but with some important differences.
Here, he is also laughing, with no eye contact and a cigarette in his hand. However, this time he is laughing because he wants to be. He is laughing because he is happy.
The final shot is one of Arthur walking down a corridor in Arkham, unaccompanied, with bloodstained footprints left behind him. I think the indication is that he killed the interviewer, which shows us that Arthur’s violence has gone from retribution to recreation, and the Joker is born, dancing into the sunset.
