Joker (2019 film)

Joker is a 2019 American psychological thriller film. based on DC Comics characters, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker. It is about a mentally ill failed stand-up comedian who turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City.

Plot

In 1981, Arthur Fleck works as a clown-for-hire and lives with his mother, Penny, in Gotham City. The city is collapsing under unemployment, crime, and financial ruin, leaving segments of the population disenfranchised and impoverished. Arthur suffers from a neurological disorder that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times, and regularly visits a social services worker to obtain medication. After a group of street kids attack him in an alley, Arthur's co-worker, Randall, loans him a gun for protection. Arthur also meets Sophie, a single mother who lives in a neighboring apartment, and invites her to his stand-up comedy routine.

While entertaining at a children's hospital, Arthur's gun falls out of his pocket. Arthur is fired for this infraction; Randall lies that Arthur bought the gun himself. During a ride home on the subway, Arthur is beaten by three drunken Wayne Enterprises businessmen before he shoots two of them in self-defense and executes the remaining one. The murders unintentionally start a protest movement against Gotham's rich, with protesters donning clown masks in the unidentified killer's image. Arthur later learns that funding cuts are shuttering the social service program, leaving him without access to his medication.

That night, Sophie attends Arthur's stand-up comedy routine, which goes poorly; he laughs uncontrollably and has difficulty delivering his jokes. A popular talk show host, Murray Franklin, mocks Arthur by showing clips from the routine on his show. Arthur later intercepts a letter written by Penny to local billionaire and mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, alleging that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth. Arthur goes to Wayne Manor for answers, where he meets Thomas's son, Bruce. After a scuffle with Alfred Pennyworth, the family butler, Arthur flees. Shortly after a visit from two Gotham City Police Department detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the train murders, Penny falls ill and is hospitalized.

At a public event, Arthur confronts Thomas, who tells him that Penny is mentally unstable and not his biological mother. In denial, Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and steals Penny's case file, discovering that he was adopted after being abandoned as a baby and that Penny was neglectful, allowing her boyfriend to physically abuse Arthur as a child, causing serious head trauma. Distraught, Arthur goes to the hospital and kills his mother before returning home and entering Sophie's apartment unannounced. Frightened, Sophie tells him to leave; it is revealed that their previous encounters were part of Arthur's delusions.

Arthur is invited to make a guest appearance on Murray's show due to the unexpected popularity of his routine clips. As he puts on his makeup and outfit, he is visited by his former co-workers Gary and Randall. Arthur murders Randall but leaves Gary unharmed for treating Arthur well in the past. En route to the studio, Arthur is pursued by the two detectives onto a train filled with clown protesters. One of the detectives accidentally shoots a protester and incites a riot while Arthur escapes in the chaos.

Before the show goes live, Arthur requests that Murray introduce him as "Joker", a reference to Murray's previous mockery. Arthur comes out to a warm reception, but begins telling morbid jokes, admits that he killed the men on the train and rants about how society abandoned and mocked him. Arthur then kills Murray before being arrested.

Riots break out across Gotham. One of the rioters corners the Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife Martha, sparing a traumatized Bruce. Meanwhile, a group of rioters in an ambulance crash into the police car carrying Arthur and free him. Arthur is hailed as a hero by the crowd and dances to their cheers.

Arthur is recaptured and incarcerated in an asylum. Laughing to himself, his psychiatrist asks him to tell her the joke; he replies that she would not understand. Arthur is then chased through the halls by the orderlies, leaving a trail of bloodied footprints behind him.

Blithethoughts

Joker is brutal, dark and a convincing origin story of a man's painful journey to self destruction. It is difficult to watch however at the same time it is impossible to take your eyes off him.

What happens when a broken person is immersed in a broken environment.? This is the question brilliantly asked by Joker.

This film must be watch with an open mind. It is disturbing brutal dark and intense, yet brilliantly craftted and courageous portrayal of someone who loses everything but somehow wins most victoriously - at least, in his mind.  This is a good origin story of a man's painful journey to self destruction.

The film will not entertain you but it will open your eyes about mental illness. How it can turn a good man into monster. The movie also showed reality of life on how other people has a big impact in someone life. In every hurtful words that we say or mean action that we do, we might be crafting a demon from a good person that no one understands.

The movie is unpleasant  it makes you wonder if there's any good left in the world.  When the film is over, you will find yourself fully invested and ready to watch his journey continue if there's ever another one.

Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix did a great job in re-imagining Joker, one of the most iconic villains in cinema history

As an origin story it showed us what drove the man down the path we know he has to eventually tread. We saw the effects it has on the man himself.