Joker

Annotation for KRRR! 2024 by Matěj Svoboda

Quite possibly the most famous comic book villain, the Joker has had the faces of Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Jared Leto on the cinema screen, each of them taking their own take on this unpredictable psychopath. But it wasn't until Joaquin Phoenix showed that far scarier than a gangster, a terrorist or a lover of ugly tattoos could be one ordinary guy who has been letting society know he doesn't care for so long that something switches in his head.

Todd Phillips' Joker may be based on a comic book and set in Gotham City, but that's more or less where all similarities to the comic book prequel end. It can't be a superhero movie, after all, because there are no superheroes in it. And maybe not even heroes. Instead, there's Arthur Fleck. A failed comedian who doesn't have many friends, lives with his mother, and life throws him one punch after another. You'd think he'd get used to it, but even this peculiar man who wears a clown mask on stage one day decides that enough is enough. The first people start dying, and Arthur, with a smile painted on his face, sinks deeper and deeper into madness. And that the world might end up in flames because of it? So be it!

Director Todd Phillips conceived of his Joker as a psychological study of madness and the story of a man who was never accepted by his surroundings and simply decided he'd had enough. In his "almost comic book" film, he also attempts to pay homage to Martin Scorsese's films about heroes who had to take on the world on their own, referencing Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982) in particular. Thus, the casting of Robert De Niro in one of the important supporting roles is no accident.

For Phillips, The Joker was only his second more serious film, having spent most of his career directing comedies. He began with the teenage Road Trip (2000), which attempted to ride on the popularity of films like American Pie (1999), but his comedic remake of the crime series Starsky & Hutch (2004) and The Hangover (2009) are now considered genre classics. In 2016, he signed on to the comedy drama War Dogs, which told the absurd story of two friends who managed to make millions of dollars in the arms trade.

However, it wasn't until The Joker that he made his first pure drama that there was no room for humor, and if anything, a lot of black and gritty humor. At first glance, the daring cinematic experiment managed to impress in theaters with its more mature approach, winning two Oscars (alongside Phoenix, music composer Hildur Guðnadóttir rejoiced) and grossing more than a billion dollars. The second installment arrives in theaters this October.