“When he climbed in the refrigerator, we had no idea he was going to do that. “While some scenes were very planned out, like when he’s in the phonebooth or walking up the stairs, others had no plan at all,” Sher said. Phoenix’s refrigerator move was an improvisation that no one on the crew knew until the moment happened during filming, “Joker” cinematographer Lawrence Sher reveals in a new interview with /Film. Arthur fits himself into the fridge and shuts the door behind him, as director Todd Phillips holds the shot for a couple extra seconds to show Arthur will remain inside the tight space for awhile. Is sympathy for this devil another form of advocacy for vigilante justice? Or are Phoenix and Phillips pushing for a fuller understanding of how a victim can morph into a victimizer, an indisputable fact of life that tragically resonates today? As entertainment and provocation, Joker is simply stupendous.One of the more baffling moments in “ Joker” finds Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck coping with his violent descent into the eponymous villain by clearing out the contents of his refrigerator so that he can fit inside it. Fleck, invited to appear on Murray Franklin Live, is humiliated by the host until he explosively turns the tables. It’s a momentum dip from which Phillips recovers with a scene that will have audiences arguing for ages. The Batman parallels will make you wince, especially when they connect to Arthur’s mother.
And the gut-wrenching, R-rated massacre turns our man in makeup into a tabloid star popular enough to inspire a chorus of masked clowns to march in protest against the rich, repped by mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), the father of Bruce. A previously introduced handgun is put to use. The emaciated sad sack (Phoenix lost a reported 52 pounds for the role) is bullied relentlessly, first by punks on the street and later on the subway by Wall Street wolves who think this clown, this mama’s boy, is aching to get his ass kicked. Not surprisingly, the catalyst for Arthur’s transition into a clown prince of crime is violence. You may laugh with and at this transfixing character, but you can’t laugh him off.
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How much of the movie is real or in Arthur’s head is up to each viewer. For Phoenix, the challenge is blending Joker’s manic hilarity without shortchanging the clinical depression and Tourette’s-like outbursts that never let up on Arthur’s psyche. Phillips, best known for the farcical hijinks of Road Trip, Old School, and the Hangover trilogy, uses the New Hollywood influence to add darker shades to his palette, but he finds a flinty, individual style as the plot progresses.
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If any deference is paid, it’s to Martin Scorsese, whose Taxi Driver inspires the gritty look of Gotham City circa 1981 (deep bows to the brute-force camerawork of Lawrence Sher) and whose lead character in that film, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), lives in the same bloody torment as our clown-face antihero. You don’t dare look away from him.Ĭomics fans will need to keep cool, however, since Phoenix and director Todd Phillips - who co-wrote the script with Scott Silver - have devised a stand-alone origin story that owes no allegiance to the DC Universe canon. Laughing maniacally, dancing on a stairway to Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2,” and twisting his face and body into contortions that defy physics, Phoenix is a virtuoso of unleashed id.
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But if you want to trade Hollywood pablum for bug-fuck intensity, do it with an actor who knows how to humanize a guy destined for hell. “Phenomenal” is a puny word to describe his gut-punch performance. In Joker, Joaquin Phoenix digs into the title role, kicks out the jams, and stamps the character with a danger all his own.
No going 50-50 with the Caped Crusader, like Jack Nicholson did in Batman even the late, great Heath Ledger’s Oscar for The Dark Knight was for Best Supporting Actor. For the first time, the man who laughs gets the star spot all to himself.
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