Phoenix gives riveting performance in ‘Joker,’ the origin story of Batman’s nemesis

That laugh.

That laugh, which Joaquin Phoenix deploys throughout “Joker” — unprompted, unhinged, uncontrolled — comes from a place of damage. It’s damage so deeply buried in the character’s psyche that it’s only very late in the picture that the source of it is made known to the character himself.

Until that time, it’s a sound that unsettles, frightens, mesmerizes. It’s a sound that announces “Joker” is unlike any other comic book-derived movie you can think of. There is something too disturbing in that sound, the pain too pervasive in the character. The guy is infinitely sad, yet he makes the skin crawl.

There is something in the nature of Batman’s arch-nemesis that appeals to and challenges the actors chosen to portray him. Heath Ledger rode his portrayal of the demon clown in “The Dark Knight” to a best actor Oscar. Expect Phoenix to travel a similar pathway to an Oscar nomination at least, if not all the way to the big prize.

His work is that good. And he goes much deeper than Ledger did.

This is the Joker’s origin story, charting the downward spiral of a man named Arthur Fleck, a guy living on the margins of Gotham City, eking out a threadbare existence working as a party clown.He’s pathetically desperate for acceptance and respect from the world but receives only abuse, often in the form of beatings, from the world in return. There’s something about Arthur that unsettles people. He’s too obviously needy and socially inept.

Phoenix inhabits that neediness and makes vivid Arthur’s sense that he just can’t catch a break. And just behind that neediness is rage, which grows and festers until it finally bursts forth, transforming him from a picked-on weakling to the Joker, a master of malevolence shorn of a conscience.

On the way to his transformation, Arthur is undermined by learning that people he thought he could trust are treacherous or have long-hidden aspects of their personalities that, when revealed, shatter his fragile sense of self worth.

Arthur is a product of his city, and the Gotham of “Joker” is a grimy pest hole of decay and violence. It’s literally drowning in garbage, thanks to a trash workers strike.

At the start of the picture, Arthur is the city’s victim. By the end, transformed into the Joker, he’s its embodiment. Celebrated by a mob of clown-mask wearing rioters who, like Arthur, are enraged at Gotham’s poverty and lawlessness and who direct their hate at the rich and powerful men and women who run the city.

Director/co-writer Todd Phillips (sharing screenplay credit with Scott Silver) has made a movie very much of these times, showing a society loudly riven by class differences and discontents.

Incorporated into the mix is the theme of bullying. Arthur attracts bullies like sugar attracts flies, until one day, he snaps.

The violence in “Joker” is measured out in small doses, but it’s genuinely shocking. This is no superhero movie featuring extravagant instruments of destruction. A .38 pistol, a pair of scissors and even a pillow do the job very effectively.

Batman never appears in “Joker,” though Bruce Wayne as a child has a small role.

Phoenix’s Joker is certainly unlike any previous iteration of the character, but he’s not someone we haven’t seen before. With his anomie and growing rage, living in the underbelly of the city, he’s a man very much in the mold of “Taxi Driver’s” Travis Bickle. And in his aspiration to make a living in stand-up comedy, he’s a figure very much like Rupert Pupkin in “The King of Comedy.”

Both are signature roles for Robert De Niro, and wouldn’t you know it? De Niro has a significant part here, playing a night-time TV host who mocks Arthur’s aspirations to be a stand-up comic and then exploits him on the air. It’s as though a circle is being closed by De Niro by participating in this picture.

“Joker”

4 stars

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen

Director: Todd Phillips

Running time: 2:02

Rated: R for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images.

This story was originally published October 3, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Phoenix gives riveting performance in ‘Joker,’ the origin story of Batman’s nemesis."