LAS VEGAS – Before footage of his “Joker” was screened at CinemaCon and before it was revealed in a teaser trailer to the world, director Todd Phillips wanted everyone to know they got it wrong. Whatever there take was on his movie, it wasn’t correct. That being said, when he met with Warner Bros. marketing team he admitted he couldn’t describe the film to them. Eventually, they asked what genre it was and he said, “a tragedy.” Judging from the teaser trailer show, that seems pretty accurate.
READ MORE: The poster for Todd Phillips’ “Joker” asks everyone to “put on a happy face”
The “Joker” finds Joaquin Phoenix playing the iconic villain (Arthur Fleck is his birth name) in an origin story from his perspective. At first, we see the positives in his life as he helps his mother (Frances Conroy) take a bath and then dances with her around their apartment. We see Arthur work as a comedian and then a clown. At one point he plays with his face to make it stretch horrifically just to see what it looks like.
We see three businessmen beat Arthur up on a subway car.
We see a quick shot of a talk show host (Robert De Niro) on a television screen. We see Arthur walking the halls at Arkham Asylum, but he’s not a patient. We see a concerned look from a nurse there (Bryan Tree Henry). We hear someone on TV refer to a vigilante who is taking justice into his own hands.
We eventually see Fleck, as the Joker, goofily walking down a back street and stairs in the daytime. Maybe he’s the Joker now, maybe he’s just getting into “clown” mode. It’s all unclear.
Towards the end of it, Arthur’s voiceover says, “I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I know it’s a comedy.”
There are no huge surprises as “Joker” currently looks like a prestige version of the villain’s beginnings. A creative take that has been explored numerous times to different degrees over the 80-year history of the “Batman” franchise. From a filmmaking perspective, it looks like it’s very well done. Phoenix clearly committed to the role judging from the amount of weight he lost to play the part. Laurence Sher’s cinematography looks solid. In fact, the entire look of the production reminded me of parts of Lynne Ramsey’s “You Were Never Really Here” and, bizarrely, of Nicole Kassell’s 2004 drama “The Woodsman.” Overall, the entire endeavor is intriguing, but it all seems small in the best way possible. And frankly, despite Phillips’ claim, isn’t that what we were actually expecting?
You can get a look at the teaser for “Joker” yourself tomorrow morning.
“Joker” opens nationwide on Oct. 4.