Surrounded by the cruel world, failed comedian Arthur Fleck lives in darkness and fights with his life while suffering though a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably.
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker (2019) is an ultimate masterpiece in which Joaquin Phoenix gets into the role of Arthur Fleck, after losing 52 pounds, getting into such a dark and twisted character isn’t an easy job to do. Afterall Joaquin deserved the Award for the Best Actor Oscar in Joker. The movie showcases the terrible life of a depressed person turning into a tragic ending.
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Arthur Fleck, a person who works as a clown and lives with his mother and takes a good care of her. A person who truly depicts the meaning of happiness under the shades of depression. He lives with medications for his mental illness known as Pseudobulbar affect which causes him to suffer through Pathological laughter and crying.
The movie describes how Arthur lives all his life oppressed by the society and blames himself for the way he is. His mother Penny Fleck claims that Thomas Wayne is the father of Arthur as she used to work at his place long time ago and keeps writing letters to him for some help to which she gets no response till ages.
A co-worker of Arthur known as Randall, gives him a gun for self defense purposes after Arthur gets assaulted by some street kids during his work hours. Randall has always dominated Arthur. As usual Arthur tries to be happy and passionate about his job and one day gets fired after he mistakenly drops the gun at a children hospital.
Depressed and lost, Arthur travels back home and kills 3 teenagers in the train who tyrannize him brutally. It’s sad but a truly satisfying scene though as the teenagers get what they deserve. Arthur always carries a card which explains about the condition he suffers as he is unable to explain the awkward situation where he can’t control his laughter. Filled with fear and shame, Arthur flees the crime scene and runs far away from the station and enter in a public toilet.
This is the golden moment in the movie where he calms himself down by dancing peacefully (which originally seems like a Tai Chi form). The scene depicts as a Swan embracing its darker side, as if a human is transforming himself fully into an Evil clown. There are millions of ways in which the scene can be explained.
Arthur has been described as a person influenced by his own imagination, where he is struck with impossible thoughts. Almost 30% of the movie shows the part in his imagination. Attending the “Live with Murray Franklin show”, his neighbor Sophie supporting him during his hard times, it all just keeps happening in his head.
The killing of the three teenagers soon starts a movement across the Gotham City. Thomas Wayne starts to stand by the side of the dead guys and this creates more chaos. Meanwhile Arthur kills Randall when he visits him at his home along with a co-worker Gary, because if Randall had never given him a gun, everything would have been normal.
The thrilling twist occurs when he discovers from the medical files of his mother that he was adopted by his mother who suffered from delusional psychosis and narcissistic personality disorder. His mothers boyfriend who used to torture and abuse him physically and battered Penny, which lead to his malnourishment and bruises over his body and a severe trauma on his head, was the true cause behind his condition of uncontrollable laughter.
In complete agony, Arthur kills his mother for what she had done. And ends up killing Murray Franklin as well in the live show where he attends the program in the appearance of a true Joker.
Joker (2019) is a magnificent movie which explains the dark and silent side of what a depressed person goes through and how the society deems it the wrong way. Although it’s a psychological thriller movie and is considered as the most complained movie of 2019, it shows the true face of the present society towards the mental illness and how insignificant it is considered. And ofcourse, the true art of acting, expression, emotions expressed by Joaquin deserve appreciation and love.