By Nicholas Panas and Jason Vassios
Todd Phillips’ Joker is an American deeply psychological thriller film released in 2019. This film isn’t just about how a villain is made; it’s a chilling, uncomfortable examination of societal neglect, mental illness, and the tragic birth of an icon of chaos.
The film displaces the life of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a struggling mentally ill clown and an aspiring famous comedian who is guided into moral nihilism, leading to a violent countercultural rebellion against the rich of Gotham City. Gotham is depicted not as a city of costumed heroes and villains, but as a suffocating city in which class inequality dominates. The film revolves around Arthur’s mixed and distorted personality which finally leads him to become a psycho serial killer. He ends up embracing the belief that all societal structure, order, and morality are fragile illusions. His motivation becomes purely ideological—to prove that anyone can be corrupted and that chaos is the true, natural state of the world.
The core of the film, however, rests squarely on the shoulders of Joaquin Phoenix. His portrayal of Arthur Fleck is nothing short of mesmerizing and deeply disturbing. This isn’t the slick, cerebral Joker we’ve seen before; this is a raw, skin-and-bones performance built on tic-ridden anxiety and desperate attempts at connection. Phoenix masterfully uses his body to convey Arthur’s torment, from the agonizing, forced laughter caused by his neurological condition to the sudden, almost balletic moments of self-realization as the Joker. It’s a performance that doesn’t ask for sympathy, but forces the audience to confront the human being beneath the clown paint, making his eventual transformation all the more harrowing.
The film’s most powerful, and arguably most controversial, element is its thematic exploration. Joker suggests that Arthur’s descent is not a singular event, but a direct consequence of a broken system. His spiral accelerates only after his state-funded therapy and medication are cut due to budget shortages. It argues that a society that fails to support its most vulnerable, that treats mental health as a luxury, is the real catalyst for the chaos that follows. This message, while potent, can feel heavy-handed at times, nearly positioning the Joker as a tragic hero of the marginalized rather than the terrifying symbol of anarchy he is destined to become.
Ultimately, Joker is a challenging, divisive, and unforgettable cinematic experience. It is a grueling watch, relentless in its focus on despair, but its technical mastery and Phoenix’s unparalleled commitment solidify it as a monumental achievement in comic book cinema—even if it is a film that leaves you more exhausted and introspective than entertained. It’s a deeply concerning and mixed emotional film. A tragedy wrapped in a psychological thriller, and a powerful statement on the society we live in.
Plot
The year is 1981 and Gotham City is a bleak, shattered place, stifled by crime and a vicious economic depression. Here is Arthur Fleck, a man doing his best to scrape by as a party clown while trying to make his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian come true. He and his fragile mother, Penny, live together in a tight apartment.
Arthur carries a heavy burden: a neurological condition that abruptly and involuntarily induces fits of frenzied laughter. He depends on meager social services for the essential medication he needs to control it.
Arthur’s slide into darkness begins when he gets beaten up in his clown costume by a bunch of street punks. His co-worker, Randall, who is eager to help, gives him a revolver for protection. Looking for comfort, Arthur initiates a romantic approach with his neighbor Sophie Dumond, a single mother, even inviting her to one of his mediocre comedy acts.
The gun brings about his destruction. After he dropes the gun at a children’s hospital by accident, he is being fired on the spot. On the subway heading home, his makeup still on, Arthur is harassed and attacked by three wealthy, drunken men employed by Wayne Investments. In a terrifying moment, Arthur shoots two of them dead in self-protection, cold-bloodedly executes the third as he tries to escape.
The rich in the city are horrified. Billionaire Thomas Wayne, a candidate for mayor and the men’s employer, publicly announces the killings. Ironically, a movement of supporters starts to gather, all sporting clown masks modeled after Arthur’s. As if that wasn’t enough, the social services program gets gutted by budget cuts, ripping away Arthur’s medication.
Sophie goes to Arthur’s failed comedy act – which is sabotaged by Arthur’s laughter and the fact the jokes don’t land. At home, Arthur finds a shocking letter that Penny had written to Thomas. He thinks that Arthur is Thomas’s illegitimate son. Arthur, in a frenzy, starts yelling out his anger at his mother for hiding his true parentage. He storms over to Wayne Manor, where Bruce, Thomas’s son, is. The young man quickly gets chased away by the butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
Two detectives arrive, investigating Arthur’s possible involvement in the subway murders. The stress proves a lot for Penny, who suffers from a stroke. She’s taken into the hospital. Meanwhile, the popular late-night host, Arthur’s idol for years, Murray Franklin, shows clips of Arthur’s failed comedy routine, mocking him and calling him «joker». This clearly bothers Arthur very much.
He visits Thomas at a movie theater where Thomas, in addition to denying being Arthur’s father, coldly tells Arthur that Penny is not even his biological mother, either – just a delusional woman who adopted him as a child. Arthur, desperate for answers, breaks into Arkham State Hospital and reads Penny’s confidential file, which tells a heartbreaking story. Penny, as it turns out, was a delusional narcissist, and Arthur was a child she adopted after she worked for the Waynes as a housekeeper. She fabricated an entire fantasy about a relationship with Thomas Wayne, leading her to believe Arthur was Thomas” child. The file also details disturbing history about Penny having been abused physically and sexually by her boyfriend; the same boyfriend had assaulted both Penny and Arthur, presumably this is what the hospital thought caused Arthur’s neurological disorder.
Arthur, visibly disturbed, goes to Sophie’s apartment unannounced, and the frightened look on Sophie’s face suggests Arthur is exhibiting erratic and disturbing behavior. When asked to leave politely by Sophie, Arthur comes to terms with the truth. The extent of their relationship, which he thought was beautiful but heartbreaking, was all an elaborate delusion Arthur concocted in his mind. The next day, at the hospital, Arthur discreetly suffocates his mother with a pillow.
After unexpectedly being invited to appear on Murray’s show, Randall and an ex-colleague, Gary, visit Arthur. Arthur violently murders Randall for his betrayal (the gun), showing more compassion towards Gary for prior kindness.
Detectives pursuing Arthur find him aboard a train packed with protestors in clown masks. Confronted with violence, Arthur intentionally starts a riot, during which one of the detectives mistakenly murders a protestor. The riot-filled mob then turns on the police, violently beating the detectives while Arthur escapes.
At the studio, Arthur asks Murray to introduce him with his mocking name «Joker.» During the live broadcast, Arthur shares dark humor, chillingly admits to killing the men he murdered on the subway, screams about how society leaves the vulnerable, and verbally attacks Murray for mocking him. With one last morbid joke, Arthur pulls out a gun and shoots Murray in the head on live television.
Arthur is quickly arrested, but the killing triggers riots throughout the city. In the midst of the chaos, a police car carrying Arthur is collided by out-of-control looters driving an ambulance, and Arthur is set free. Simultaneously, a rioter corners the Wayne family in the dark alley, murdering Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha in front of an innocent and traumatized young Bruce (future Batman). Later, Arthur, on top of the overturned police vehicle, dances victoriously as a crowd cheers him on.
Sometime after that, confined at Arkham, Arthur is speaking to a new therapist and laughing quietly to himself, recalling a joke that he won’t reveal to her because she wouldn’t get it anyway. After Arthur leaves his therapist’s office, you can see a bunch of bloody shoe prints left on the floor behind him.
Additional Info
| Director | Todd Phillips |
| Writers | Todd Phillips
Scot Silver |
| Based on | Joker by DC Comics |
| Producers | Todd Phillips
Bradley Cooper Emma Tillinger Koskoff |
| Starring | Joaquin Phoenix
Robert De Niro Zazie Beetz Frances Conroy |
| Distributors | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Cinematography | Lawrence Sher |
| Editor | Jeff Groth |
| Music by | Hildur Guonadottir |
| Production companies | Warner Bros. Pictures
DC Films Village Roadshow Pictures Bron Creative Joint Effort |
| Release date | 31-8-2019 at Venice |
| Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | United Stated |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55-70 million |
| Box office | $1.079 billion |
