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Joker
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
2019 · Directed by Todd Phillips · 122 min · Crime · Thriller · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 51 frames
Tagline
Put on a happy face.
Plot
In 1981, Arthur Fleck is a party clown and aspiring stand-up comedian who lives with his mother, Penny, in crime-ridden Gotham City. He suffers from a neurological disorder that causes him to have random, uncontrollable laughing fits, for which he takes medication that he obtains through the city's social services program. After Arthur is attacked by street youths while on the job, his co-worker Randall gives him a revolver to defend himself. Arthur pursues a relationship with his neighbor, single mother Sophie Dumond, and invites her to see his routine at a comedy club.
Later, while performing at a children's hospital, Arthur's gun accidentally falls out of his pocket, resulting in him getting fired. While riding home on the subway and still wearing his clown make-up, he is mocked and assaulted by three drunk employees from Wayne Investments. He fatally shoots two of them in self-defense and murders the third as he attempts to flee. Their employer, billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, condemns the killings, but supporters begin sporting clown masks in Arthur's image. Budget cuts shut down the social services program, leaving Arthur without his medication.
Sophie attends Arthur's stand-up routine, which fails due to his disorder and his jokes falling flat. Arthur intercepts a letter from Penny to Thomas indicating that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth of his parentage. He goes to Wayne Manor, where he meets Thomas's young son Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Penny suffers a stroke after being questioned by two detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the subway murders, and is hospitalized. Arthur's idol, popular late-night talk show host Murray Franklin, presents clips of Arthur's failed performance on his show and mockingly calls him a "joker", much to Arthur's distress.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Scott Silver, Todd Phillips
- Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
- Edited by: Jeff Groth
- Music: Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Production design: Mark Friedberg
- Produced by: Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper
Cast
- Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck
- Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin
- Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond
- Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck
- Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne
- Shea Whigham as Detective Burke
- Bill Camp as Detective Garrity
- Glenn Fleshler as Randall
- Leigh Gill as Gary
- Josh Pais as Hoyt Vaughn
Production
- Country: Canada, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Warner Bros. Pictures, Joint Effort, Village Roadshow Pictures, Bron Studios
- Budget: $55,000,000
- Box office: $1,078,958,629
- Themes: society, based on comic, social commentary, psychological thriller, criminal mastermind, mental illness, anarchy, character study, clown makeup, outsider
More by Todd Phillips
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