Joker
Joaquin Phoenix delivers a transcendent performance in a morally repellent film.
Many actors have delivered amazing performances in movies that don’t deserve them but Joker is probably the best example of the distance between the caliber of the actor’s work and the rest of the movie. Directed with a sledgehammer by Todd Philips, Joker is not up to the level of what Phoenix achieves with his performance as Arthur Fleck. Phoenix paints a richly disturbing portrait of a man with mental illness. At first I thought he was hammy, but then, by the sheer clarity of his acting he makes us settle into Arthur’s psychic reality. It is an iconic performance, as has now been confirmed by the hordes of people who go up to the actual staircase in the Bronx where Arthur becomes the Joker to reenact the moment themselves.
Phoenix, who is a fearless actor, dives into a very dark place, physically and emotionally. Not only is he emaciated, but it is an extraordinarily physical portrayal, cathartic in the classical sense. Arthur manipulates his mouth into a scary grimace, yet there is real pain in his eyes; he is the embodiment of the Greek masks of comedy and tragedy. His horrible involuntary laughter that is closer to wailing, the bizarre fake laughter in public, the almost simultaneous swings between gentleness, cluelessness, and hurt are truly frightening, and not just in the sense of making us afraid of the character. It…
