By Larry Legion
What makes a person want to be a clown?
I’ve always wondered what it takes to make someone feel like putting on grease paint to turn into someone else for the enjoyment of others.
After taking a couple of months digging through the cinematic muck that is offered up to the masses during Summer Blockbuster season, I’m happy to report back to you, dear reader, that after two viewings, Joker is one of the best films I’ve ever seen.
It’s the story of a man named Arthur Fleck, played by a gaunt-looking Joaquin Phoenix, whose day job is that of your everyday street clown.
Arthur is living with his ever-aging mother in a small apartment somewhere in Gotham City when he gets attacked while acting as a human billboard on the street by some punk kids who steal his sign. He chases after the kids only to be attacked by them in an alley. He never recovers the sign in tact and subsequently begins walking on thin ice at work. Through no fault of his own, he’s one misstep away from losing his livelihood as an (employed) clown.
On the bus ride home, Arthur smiles and makes various funny faces at a small child sitting in front of him. Of course, the child’s mother berates the awkward Arthur. That sets off an uncontrollable, almost-pathological laughter from Arthur. This is when we learn that Arthur suffers from the most peculiar of mental illnesses. He hands the mother a well-penned, laminated card that explains his maniacal laughter as a medical condition that takes place when he gets nervous or upset. As he cackles in the background, the front of the card begs her pardon while the back of the card asks for the holder to return it to Arthur, but the card is never returned and the great unraveling takes hold.
Arthur is a mama’s boy who dreams about being a comedian. He was raised to believe he was put on Earth to bring happiness to others. His mother, played sharply by Frances Conroy, seems to suffer from mental illness as well. The two spend the evenings watching their favorite late-night television host Murray Franklin (Robert DeNiro) together as Arthur fantasizes about being on the show himself.
After hearing about the attack on Arthur, fellow clown Randall (Glenn Fleshler, AKA The Yellow King from True Detective) gives Arthur a gun to protect himself. This plan backfires while Arthur is entertaining some kids in a local hospital. The gun falls out of Arthur’s costume and he’s forced to play like it’s part of the act. As Arthur loses his job as a clown due to the incident, he also loses his mind.
He tries his hand at stand-up comedy at Pogo’s Comedy Club, (Pogo being an obvious reference to serial killer clown John Wayne Gacy). Someone films Arthur’s act, and it ends up landing him a spot on the Murray Franklin show.
We see Arthur descend all the way into madness as he readies himself to perform his act on late-night television.
As per usual, I won’t give away the whole story, but I thought the film was a powerful portrayal of someone who suffers from mental illness and feels isolated from society because of it.
As an origin story, Joker does a good job of telling its own tale while still being tied to the Batman legend. And over the years, the Joker has become the best part of said legend.
Phoenix is incredible in his embodiment of this character, as were Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson. All three men, but especially Ledger and Phoenix, completely devolve into the role in a way most actors cannot. As a result, these performances are mentioned among the greatest of this generation. It begs the question of whether it’s the backstory of this fictional character or the actors who portray him that make this poor soul’s tale so compelling.
