PROVOKR Pick: JOKER

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

It has arrived. No, not that clown, but another terrifying clown sure to give you nightmares, the Joker. You may think you know the Joker, a main villain of the DC Batman comics universe, but you’ve never seen him like this. In Todd Phillips’ (yeah, the guy who created The Hangover movies) newest film, Joker, the infamous comic-book villain gets his own origin story and stand-alone film.

The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian, who turns down a dark path of crime in 1981 Gotham and becomes the Joker. Robert de Niro also stars in the film as talk-show host Murray Franklin, who aids in Fleck’s descent into madness. Joker is said to pay homage to Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, in which de Niro play Rupert Pupkin, a failed comedian obsessed with talk-show hosts. Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy also star in the film as Fleck’s love interest and mother respectively.

The film was directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver. Joker is intended to launch DC Black, a series of standalone films based on DC characters. Joker premiered on August 31, 2019 at the Venice International Film Festival where it won the festival’s highest prize, the Golden Lion.

While Joker has certainly been racking up praise, no discussion of the film would be complete without mention of the controversy it has generated, with some feeling that the film’s seemingly sympathetic portrayal of the character could incite real-life violence. The US Army has even issued a warning to personnel to be on guard at showings of the film. Whether or not a piece of art can actually be culpable in someone else’s turn to violence is a much bigger discussion than can be handled here, so I’ll just say, stay safe out there.

Joker comes out in theaters on October 4, 2019. It is being released by Warner Brothers.