“Joker” Goes Beyond a Great Joke

Release Date：Oct/4/2019
Genre：Crime/Drama/Thriller
Director：Todd Phillips
Cast：Joaquin Phoenix、Robert De Niro、Shea Whigham、Frances Conroy

Viola's Rating：7.9







After the legendary “The Dark Knight” trilogy by Christopher Nolan, DC comics has come up with the critically acclaimed “Suicide Squad”, and now one of the most iconic characters in popular culture, Joker, has its own feature film by Todd Phillips, which was released on October 4^th, 2019, and it won the Golden Lion at the 76^th Venice International Film Festival.

Based on the DC comics character, this criminal, dramatic thriller tells a story in Gotham City. Mentally-troubled failed stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck is ignored and ill-treated by society. He then embarks on a downward spiral of revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: "The Joker".

Although DC comics clearly stated that the Joker in “Joker” has nothing to do with the one in “The Dark Knight”, the relationship between Batman and Joker is mentioned. Even though the film focuses on how Arthur turns into a life of chaos and crime, connections to Batman and the Wayne family arouses the memory of the audience who’s familiar with DC comics.

Following “It: Chapter 2”, “Joker” once again challenges people with coulrophobia. Basically the flick depicts the original reason why coulrophobia became a thing. In 1970s, when a man whose profession is clown was revealed as a serial killer, people don’t believe in the stranger hidden behind the clown faces anymore. Just like in “Joker”, Joker’s images provoke not only fear but also the conflict between people with higher and lower social status. This is one of the themes of the feature film.

Another theme to discuss in “Joker” would be “the true happiness”. Arthur has been called “Happy” by his mother, and his job, clown, requires him, or we should say, provides him the chance to “look” happy all the time, but whether he’s really happy or not is the question. American actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide due to a disease, but on screen, nobody knew that he was actually not happy. Therefore, “Joker” tells us to pay more attention to people around us.

Joker has this symptom that he can’t help but laughing whenever he has some emotional fluctuation. His exaggerated laugh has formed an apparent contradiction with other people’s laughing at him. Unlike the clown faces, what’s hidden behind Arthur’s laugh is his broken heart. When people don’t understand why he’s laughing, they just humiliate him even attack him, and this destructs him completely eventually.


“Joker” might not be a blockbuster like “The Dark Knight” trilogy, but it’s definitely an extremely sad masterpiece. It’s not a comedy that can make people laugh, and when you look at Joker laughing, you’ll feel his deeper needs. Although it doesn’t have a happy ending, “Joker” does go beyond a great joke.

Picture Credit: IMDb