Joaquin Phoenix Goes Full Clown In The Hectic Final ‘Joker’ Trailer
Send in the clowns.
Ever since it was first announced, the primary reaction to DC’s standalone Joker spin-off has been bafflement.
After all, nobody’s exactly upset that the Clown Prince of Crime is finally getting his own movie. The character is one of the most popular in the comic book pantheon, and if the relatively good box office returns of the otherwise woeful Suicide Squad prove anything, it’s that most people’s appetite for the Joker is insatiable — even when he’s played by Jared Leto.
By the same token, nobody knows quite what to expect from the version of the character we’re about to be served up, portrayed this time around by Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix is a good actor, with a string of excellent performances behind him. But given that we’re barely a decade away from Heath Ledger’s beloved turn as the character, it’s not clear why we need him to be reimagined, even if he’s going to be reimagined well.
Add to that the fact that the stand-alone film is being directed by Todd Phillips, the man behind The Hangover movies, produced by noted auteur Martin Scorsese, and co-stars Robert goddamn DeNiro himself, and it’s absolutely impossible to guess what this thing is going to look like.
Well, maybe not “impossible”, given that we have a new trailer here to chuck us a few clues.
For a start, looks like those long-standing rumours are true: Joker is going to feed into the Bernie Bro discourse, setting the clown’s disenfranchised followers against a rich bigwig who is almost certainly Batman’s father Thomas Wayne. Like that Occupy Wall Street-inspired “We Are All Clowns” sign? Hope so, ’cause looks like that’s going to be the main thrust of the film.
Oh, and the trailer also makes it clear that this thing is gonna be pretty plotless. All the marketing materials have been big on character and vibe, and very light on what actually happens; I’d take it as a sign that this is gonna be a lotta table-setting, and not much plotting.
Guess we’ll find out for sure when Joker hits Australian cinemas on October 3.