Smile! New 'Joker' Trailer Puts A Happy Face On Joaquin Phoenix Before Venice Premiere

We’re about to enter an awards season where Joaquin Phoenix will play the literal Joker in a film that’s been touted as a contender for the Best Actor Oscar by no less than a respected film festival director. It’d be less crazy a thought if he wasn’t the fourth Oscar nominee to don the role, and the second actor who could get awards love for playing the crazed clown. Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger (who won the Oscar for his legendary performance) are among the most talented actors of their generation to play the character, Jared Leto won an Oscar in 2013 before donning the makeup in 2016’s flop “Suicide Squad.”

Mark Hamill (Luke freakin’ Skywalker) holds the iconic vocal performance, and Golden Age actor Cesar Romero got it all started out in the 1960s on the Adam West Batman show. Not to mention Zach Galifianakis gave his spin on the role in “The Lego Batman Movie.”

Phoenix, perhaps the best actor working right now, playing the character doesn’t even seem that weird when you think about in retrospect. It’s becoming a role as decorated and coveted as Hamlet, and we’re about to get an idea of how Phoenix’s interpretation of the character is going to sit with audiences at the Venice International Film Festival in just a few days.

“Joker” premieres in competition at Venice on Saturday, a bit of an unexpected, unorthodox choice for the festival. Nevertheless, Warner Bros. is positioning the anti-superhero drama as one of their big awards season pushes. The film looks to be tapping into any number of sociopolitical ideas as it riffs on Martin Scorsese‘s “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy,” with themes of isolation, income inequality, bullying and so much more already on display in our latest trailer.

The aspect of mental illness will also reportedly come into play too. Co-star Marc Maron has said “Joker” is a “character study of a mentally ill person.” This makes us a little uneasy, as trying to study such a sensitive subject in a character who, historically, is a demented clown who murders people with laughing gas, could be catastrophic and deeply offensive to those suffering from the disease. We shall see how it’s handled and if they can avoid exploitation and create some empathy for the character. But all signs point to some kind of cautionary tale.

Director Todd Phillips is still so new to the world of drama, and should be deeply careful with how he explores such a topic in such a volatile fictional world. Here’s hoping the film approaches mental illness in a way that doesn’t layer on the dangerous stereotypes already existent in today’s media. Many questions will be answered (and Twitter debates sparked) once the film opens Oct. 4. Festival reactions should be high so look for our review on Saturday.