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*This review will contain major spoilers for the film and various parts of Batman lore; read at your own peril!*

“If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!” This is an often forgotten line near the end of Alan Moore’s “The Killing Joke,” which has served as the basis of the Joker origin story in the Batman mythos for decades. Yet, it’s probably the most important for understanding Alan Moore’s work; throughout the story, readers see flashbacks in the form of memories in Joker’s mind as he remembers the life of a struggling, failing comedian who loses his wife and unborn child while also being forced against his will into a life of crime all on “one bad day.” These flashbacks end with Batman pushing this poor soul into a vat of chemicals that complete the physical transformation of what has already mentally and emotionally occurred in him: the birth of the Joker. 

However, that often forgotten line at the end of story reminds us that we are seeing this through the lens of an unreliable narrator. The next time Joker decides to “remember” what made him who he is, the events could change completely. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what caused him to be who he is. What matters is that the Joker is wrong; one bad day does not have to drive us to become chaotic evil, as shown through Batman’s “one bad day.” While the death of his parents at a young age obviously traumatized him, Bruce Wayne chooses to be the HERO not just despite but also because of his grief and loss. The Joker on the other hand chooses to be the embodiment of anarchy and insanity.

So how does 2019’s interpretation of the Joker origin story, as portrayed through director Todd Phillips and actor Joaquin Phoenix, fit into all this? While not as on-the-nose as Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight, with his constantly evolving stories for how he got those scars (why so serious!?), Joker wisely decides to fall in line with what has come before it and provide a glimpse of the man behind the magic curtain without ruining the trick. The audience sees very early on that Joaquin’s Arthur Fleck is more than just a mentally ill outcast of society; he is also an unreliable narrator who loves to engage in his delusions of grandeur to the point that it blends in with his perception of reality.

Between the introductory scene of talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), which becomes intertwined with the vivid imagining of Arthur meeting him as both a childhood hero and wishful surrogate father figure, and the realization near the final act of the film that his budding romance with his apartment neighbor (Zazie Beetz) was entirely non-existent and the result of hopeful hallucinations, Joker makes it clear that Arthur Fleck’s perception of events can not be trusted. Furthermore, these scenes prove to the audience that they are also only ever seeing this story through Arthur’s flawed perspective. The lens is purposely being skewed to generate sympathy for someone who is choosing to do evil acts by the end of the story. It’s enough to drive a viewer mad! So why bother paying this story attention if its events can’t all be entirely true? Because if the Joker is going to have a past, he prefers it to be multiple choice.

This reviewer would argue that if Todd Phillips had delivered a definitive telling of the Joker’s origin, that would be a story NOT worth seeing. It effectively would ruin the mystery of the character and notion that anyone could become him (the more that he is nobody, the more that he could be anybody). However, by brilliantly displaying throughout the film that the story isn’t entirely true, Phillips is still able to provide a cohesive, singular story that lets audiences decide how much of it is the Joker’s actual backstory vs merely an insight to his broken, evil mind. In other words, it is multiple choice.

What makes this decision even better is that no matter what choices the viewers decide to go with, all are excellent stories in their own right due to the phenomenal acting on Phoenix’s part. Maybe Arthur Fleck really did kill all those people and become the Clown Prince of Crime after initiating a massive revolt from the oppressed in Gotham against its top one percent? Maybe none of it did, and he merely wishes it had happened in the way the film portrays? Maybe Fleck isn’t the Joker at all, but inspired the person who would one day become Batman’s arch-nemesis? Phoenix’s performance combined with the script sell all of these possibilities to its audience incredibly well.  He didn’t embody a single interpretation of the Joker or attempt to emulate any of the performances that came before him. He instead captured the idea of what makes the Joker so terrifying yet so interesting into a singular performance in a way that is honestly Oscar-worthy.

Of course, whether this film will even be nominated remains to be seen. Due to the controversy built-up by weeks of media concerns of violence, dark web rumors of mass shootings requiring police presence at theaters during opening weekend, and the film’s gritty, realistic analysis of society and its treatment of the mentally ill, this film may unfairly be looked over. If it is ignored completely however, it might perhaps be the film’s biggest irony. Arthur is a character that supposedly snaps due to society’s treatment of him. He slowly and believably (to the point of being quite eerie) evolves from someone who wants to belong and fit in to someone who has been crumbled and walked over by the rich, the poor, and the people he considered family so many times that he has nothing left to lose. If this film, too, is neglected despite its amazing writing, acting, cinematography, and soundtrack, then it will be a reflection of its tragic central character. Even though it is a comic book film, it is also a cry for us to look at society and those we look down on and examine how our individual accountability fits into all of it despite our economic status or where our political leanings lie. While neglecting this film certainly won’t result in the same violent outcome that Arthur creates by the end of the story, it certainly will be a bad punchline to a cruel joke in how movies and the conversations this one in particular attempts to start are perceived nowadays.  What could possibly resemble the Joker more at that point?

Reviewed by: Jared Ponton on October 13, 2019