Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker: An Emotional And Intellectual Experience

I love movies that reflect life and make me think, director and writer Todd Philips achieved this brilliantly with Joker. Set in the fictitious Gotham City, the story is laced with irony and hard truths about our society and mental illness. Needless to say, the movie came to life because of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, or Arthur Fleck.

Arthur Fleck is so real it hurts. The way Joaquin Phoenix handled the character was exquisite. Through his journey, we see how he lost bits of himself and struggled to cling onto goodness, before finally spiraling downward, out of control.

The movie is beautifully shot – how the director makes a drab and dreary city look beautiful is beyond me. It definitely helps that the soundtrack is haunting and melancholic, perfectly accentuating the emotions and atmosphere of the movie’s bleak setting and storyline.

I think it’s impossible not to feel some emotional pain watching this movie, so if you hate facing the harder parts of the emotional spectrum, you may not like it. But if you enjoy good acting (who doesn’t!), you should watch it.

Warning: There are spoilers in this post! Also, I’ve never watched other versions of Joker! So I’m looking at this movie as a standalone with no connections to other Joker/Batman movies or comics. There are many ways to interpret this movie, I’m focusing on its societal and mental health aspects.

This is a long post, if you want to skip the synopsis and find out why it’s an emotional and intellectual experience, please click here.

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Joker: A synopsis of the main events, from my POV

It’s in the ’80s. Gotham City is in a slump, garbage littered the streets as garbage collectors went on strike. Work is scarce, life is hard, and rats are large and rampant.

Arthur Fleck

Arthur Fleck is struggling, lonely and awkward. He lives with his sick mother and works as a clown – a job that he loves. No friends.

After a group of teens stole his sign and beat him up, he returned home showing no sign of his shitty day to his mom. Together, they watched the Murray Franklin show. Arthur fantasizes about speaking to Murray Franklin. From his fantasy, we learn some things.

• His mom told him he’s here to bring laughter and joy to people. He believes it
• He loves his mom
• Murray Franklin is a father figure to him
• He wants to be seen and accepted

Arthur wasn’t evil. He has feelings and aspirations. Throughout the earlier parts of the movie, he wanted to make kids laugh.

When he talked to his colleague, Randall, about the group of boys who beat him up, he told him they’re just kids, he should’ve left them be. Randall handed him a gun for protection.

Arthur suffers from mental illness and is on 7 medications. The most debilitating of all is his neurological condition – he bursts into fits of laughter he can’t control.

He wants to be a stand-up comedian, but he doesn’t understand what makes something funny. He tries to fit in, to be happy, but all he has are negative thoughts, and all his encounters bad. Joy has never been accessible to him, and he can’t make sense of life.

Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there? Arthur Fleck

Arthur Fleck’s perfect storm

During an assignment at a Children’s Hospital, Arthur dropped his gun in front of the kids. His boss fired him over that incident, telling him that Randall said he bought the gun.

Later that day, still in his clown makeup, 3 Wall Street men beat him up on the train. Arthur was pushed to the edge, and he pushed back, shooting and killed them. The subway murders led to a movement, so Arthur finally felt noticed. At the same time, he started seeing the lady (Sophie Dumond) who lives down the hall and learned from his mother that Thomas Wayne is his father.

Then everything went downhill. He lost access to his medication. His mother suffered a stroke after some policemen came to ask questions regarding the subway murder.

His father figure mocked him publicly. When that led to the invitation to appear in the Murray Franklin show, he feels no joy about the prospect of “catching a break”, but accepts it with the intention of killing himself on national TV.

After confronting Thomas Wayne about his mother’s claims, he found out that not only was he not a Wayne, he wasn’t a Fleck either. He was adopted and his mother didn’t stop him from being abused when he was a child. The severe head trauma from the abuse led to his mental illness, the laughing fits, and prevented him from assimilating into society.

And he realized that he hallucinated the entire relationship with Sophie.

The walls of his life came crashing down. He already felt invisible to begin with, now he lost the only identity he ever had. Everything good in his life turned out to be fake.

I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a comedy. Arthur Fleck

He kills his mother – his anchor to reality.

The birth of Joker

Right before he was due to get on the Murray Franklin show, his colleagues Randall and Gary visited him. Randall wanted to make sure their statements to the police corroborated because the police have been questioning everyone at work about the subway murders.

Arthur kills Randall but lets Gary go because Gary “was the only one who was ever nice to him”.

He puts on his clown makeup and makes his way to the show. Then we’re treated to a scene I believe would be remembered for the next century. Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker dance on the stairs was electrifying!

On the show, Arthur Fleck didn’t kill himself. The people laughed at him, making him feel excluded once again. He confessed instead. When Murray asked about his motive for killing that 3 men, he didn’t tell them it was in self-defense. He told them that they were awful people – and they couldn’t carry a tune to save their lives.

By that time, he was past seeking acceptance by people.

I’ve got nothing left to lose, nothing can hurt me anymore.Arthur Fleck

He was no longer Arthur Fleck. No longer trying to be nice. There was no attempt to defend himself and explain that those 3 men harassed a lady and assaulted him. They could’ve killed him, and he’d be right – the press would move right on to the next piece of news.

He ended the interview by shooting Murray Franklin on live TV, destroying his father figure and a symbol of his dream. The last connections to his old life. Then he throws the gun on Murray’s table and did a little dance.

Now, he’s really free of Arthur Fleck. He’s Joker.

As he was taken away in the police car, he fantasizes about being celebrated by the people.

In the last scene, we see him talking to a psychiatrist in a white-walled room. When he walked out of the room, he leaves bloody footprints in the hallways of the hospital.

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So, is Joker a dangerous movie?

I don’t think so. Well, it’s as dangerous as any movie with a killer who was abused as a child.

But it does paint a picture of what’s dangerous: An apathetic society that works for the rich, neglects the poor, and disregards the importance of quality mental healthcare.

Instead of worrying that this movie will encourage the wrong people to do the wrong things, we should look at the value of the movie in making us empathize with people who have mental health issues or are lonely and marginalized.

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is mental illness externalized

Joker offered a glimpse into the world of a mentally ill person who feels invisible, unheard and forgotten. It placed the audience into the mind of someone who’s in deep psychological pain. I felt the pain throughout the movie, so reminiscent of my own.

I never expected to identify so much with Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker. The first scene of Arthur Fleck crying as he put on his clown makeup stirred something in me – I recognized it immediately. He was depressed.

His social worker, likely in a bad place herself, ignored his cries for help.

I hope my death makes more cents than my life.Arthur Fleck (written in his notebook)

She saw this written in his notebook and didn’t do much. Could she be that callous? Or is it because we’re listening from Arthur’s point of view and only heard what he chose to hear?

Mental illness screws with our perception. But it could be that she’s too overwhelmed by her situation to spare any empathy for Arthur. After all, the system doesn’t care about her too.

The laughing fits are a great symbol of mental illness

It’s hard to visualize mental illness, but the laughing fits served as an effective symbol of mental illness in my opinion.

Mental illness is often seen as part of a person’s personality when it’s not. Mental illness is very much like his laughing fits. They aren’t part of someone’s disposition and definitely not a self-indulgent behavior. Thanks to Joaquin Phoenix’s great acting skills, we know there’s only pain in that laughter. It isn’t voluntary – just like mental illness.

His laughs contain no joy. It brings him strange looks, disgust and anger, but he can’t help it. The worse of all – people doubt him and want him to stop laughing.

The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t. Arthur Fleck (written in his notebook)

There’s still a shroud of stigma over mental illness. Mentally ill people often put on a smile (like Arthur) and go on about their daily lives. When they show symptoms of their sickness, they’re sometimes seen as crazy or weak.

Having a mental illness is not that different from having diabetes or an autoimmune disorder. There’s something wrong with the body, not the person.

Joker highlights problems with society

When confessing to the subway murders on the show, Arthur said he’s tired of pretending the murders weren’t funny.

When he said those lines, his face was a mask of pain and suppressed emotions. He had tears in his eyes. I don’t think he meant what he said. I think he’s sick of trying to fit in and said those things in spite. It was an invitation for the world to hate him.

All of you, the system that knows so much. You decide what’s right or wrong. The same way you decide what’s funny or not.Arthur Fleck

The society has a rather narrow idea of what’s acceptable and what’s not, what’s success and failure. That’s a problem because humans exist on spectrums. People fall out of what’s considered normal or successful all the time, then they’re branded as weird or a failure.

On the other hand, men like Murray Franklin and Thomas Wayne have always been admired and put on a pedestal – even if they’re not the most sincere or kindest people. People admire power and wealth, they’re won over easily by superficial charm.

Are we encouraging the wrong values?

Nobody thinks what it’s like to be the other guy. You think men like Thomas Wayne ever think what it’s like to be someone like me? To be somebody but themselves? They don’t.  Arthur Fleck

If the society was more empathetic, inclusive and tolerant as a whole, maybe there would be lesser troubled souls.

A funny joke?

Social Worker: Is something funny?
Arthur Fleck: I just thought of a funny joke!
Social Worker: Do you mind telling it?
Arthur Fleck: …You wouldn’t get it.

Of course, the movie had to end on a joke that keeps us guessing.

If I had to guess, I’d say it has something to do with Arthur Fleck’s life being one huge irony. He ended up destroying everything that meant something to him. Remember his fantasy of being on the show?

Instead of being the man of the house and taking care of his mother, he killed her.

He tried in vain to bring laughter and joy to the world – he doesn’t even know what happiness is. He laughs but feels no joy. In the end, he was better at bringing death and chaos to the world.

He wanted to be seen, to know he exists and matters. Sadly, it’s only when he covers his face with clown make-up that he is seen as someone who “matters” – the person behind the movement.

And he, a nobody, killed an influential TV icon and led to the death of the most powerful man in the city.

His life is like a cruel joke life played on him.

Or perhaps the joke was that everything was in his imagination, and this story is his idea of comedy – humor so dark none of us will ever get it.

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I’m sorry it’s such a long post! So, what do you think? Did you watch the movie? What did you think was the joke?

If you’re a movie buff, do check out my write up about Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood too!