{"id":44,"date":"2019-10-06T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-06T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2022-12-31T22:06:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T22:06:19","slug":"joker-birth-of-the-clown-prince-of-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/misterfatherly.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/06\/joker-birth-of-the-clown-prince-of-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Joker: Birth of the Clown Prince of Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
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9.5<\/span><\/b> out of 10<\/span><\/div>\n
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I remember seeing a couple web articles claiming that Joaquin Phoenix was in talks to star in a Joker origin movie that would be helmed by The Hangover Trilogy\u2019s director, Todd Phillips.  I didn\u2019t really believe that Joaquin Phoenix could pull it off until I watched the test footage of him and then the first trailer came out and won me over.  Having not remembered that he played an insane role as the emperor in Gladiator, I was convinced that he could pull it off, especially after learning that Joaquin Phoenix is very picky about the roles that he chooses.  Of course, we had the pre-screening reviews and controversy occur and I didn\u2019t buy it for one second.  After seeing Joker, I am happy to say that the controversy surrounding this film is completely ludicrous and that this film had me smiling and laughing awkwardly from beginning to end. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker is a character study film that tells the story of Arthur Fleck, a man who is constantly pushed away by society and suffers from a psychological condition of laughing uncontrollably.  Fleck dreams of being a comedian very much that he works in Gotham City as a clown, studies local comedians\u2019 works, and idolizes a popular talk show comedian named Murray Franklin (Played by Robert De Niro).  After a series of tragic events that directly affect his psyche, Arthur begins to lose it and goes down a path that eventually transforms him into the criminal mastermind known as The Joker.  <\/span><\/div>\n

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Joaquin Phoenix is the star of this film and carries it successfully from beginning to end.  What Phoenix succeeds in doing is convince me that he is a man that is just a few steps away of losing his mind and he does so by having lost over 50 pounds to the point that his skin is hanging off of his bones and by also studying how a mentally ill person would act, he didn\u2019t study any previous version of The Joker and brings a very realistic character that I could see become The Joker if someone like that were pushed too far.  What also makes Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s version of The Joker so unique is the way he acts with his attitude, mannerisms and the way he laughs, not to mention how he uses facial expressions to show me how he\u2019s really feeling throughout the entire film.  Without spoiling the film, I will say that Arthur Fleck in the last thirty minutes does indeed become The Joker and the way I saw it, I could fully recognize things only The Joker would do and to me, it\u2019s a transition that was done smoothly. I felt sorry for Arthur Fleck throughout the film as there are certain events that could\u2019ve been avoided if Arthur had made better decisions, really, it\u2019s both a tragedy\/comedy.<\/span><\/div>\n

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I loved how the story was presented in the film, you don\u2019t really know if some of the events that happen are actually happening or if it\u2019s all in Arthur\u2019s head.  The music, both the score and song selection are very appropriate as they show up only when absolutely necessary and fully convey the feelings and choices of Arthur Fleck throughout the film.  For supporting roles, I\u2019ve got to give it to Robert De Niro and Frances Conroy as both very well play Murray Franklin and Penny Fleck, two influential figures that are somewhat\/directly responsible for Arthur\u2019s change into the Joker.  They\u2019re not in the film very long but what they do in the film left an impact that makes me think about our society, today.  The dialogue in the film was really solid, so many memorable lines come from Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s delivery and it made me very nervous about what could happen next with this character.  I also like how the film tricks you throughout by having typical film plots occur but then is flipped upside, those are the type so plots that I really like. My favorite scene in the film is probably the last thirty minutes of the film as it has good pacing, great dialogue, and a few memorable violent scenes that I will definitely remember this film for.  <\/span><\/div>\n

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So, it seems like I\u2019m really praising the film, but are there any problems.  Well, I\u2019ll probably say that there are a few drawn out scenes involving Fleck when he is dancing that I felt could\u2019ve been a little trimmed down and that there are some tie-ins to the Batman universe that really didn\u2019t have to be there.  One criticism I\u2019ve heard is that Joker felt a little too familiar to Taxi Driver and while I understand what they mean, this film being inspired by Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, I would say that it didn\u2019t really bother me that much.  That\u2019s really all of the problems I would note as they are really small nitpicks.  So, after this movie, who\u2019s my favorite portrayal of The Joker?  That is unfortunately hard for me to decide because if we were saying who\u2019s the most definitive version, then Mark Hamill would easily win even though he\u2019s just voices him.  Heath Ledger is still my favorite crazy portrayal of The Joker and Jack Nicholson is still charming.  Joaquin Phoenix is probably my favorite portrayal of the man who becomes The Joker, sort of a character that has an origin story if you know what I mean.  So really, I would say I love them all.<\/span><\/div>\n

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So, what is my opinion of the controversy surrounding this film?  I said in the beginning that the controversy is unwarranted and is honestly too ridiculous to think about.  There really aren\u2019t that many violent scenes that some critics are pushing as Deadpool and John Wick have more violent kills than this film does.  I can understand if someone would be too uncomfortable with the film, but I have seen much more psychologically terrifying films like American Psycho and Fight Club, so this film is no different than the others.<\/span><\/div>\n

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In conclusion, Joker was the film that I wanted it to be, a character study of how someone could become The Joker if pushed too far and had certain incidents occur in his life.  The film has a great leading man with Joaquin Phoenix, who absolutely committed himself into this character and was willing to go through physical and mental stress in order to give us a terrific performance backed by Todd Phillips\u2019 direction all throughout.  This film is not for the feint of heart and will only appeal to people who like psychological thrillers.  It\u2019s one of my favorite films of 2019 and I hope that this film does start to appeal to more of those that were scared off.  Don\u2019t forget to smile and remember, that\u2019s life.<\/span><\/div>\n
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9.5 out of 10 I remember seeing a couple web articles claiming that Joaquin Phoenix was in talks to star in a Joker origin movie that would be helmed by The Hangover Trilogy\u2019s director, Todd Phillips.  I didn\u2019t really believe that Joaquin Phoenix could pull it off until I watched the test footage of him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nJoker: Birth of the Clown Prince of Crime -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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