All Arthur Fleck wanted was for his death to make more cents than his life. Little did he realize that his life made quite a lot of cents at the box office. 2019’s Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, broke monumental records and went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all-time. At the time of its release, it was controversial, cutting edge, and the polar opposite of the other big comic book adaptations releasing around that time. This begs the question: is Joker a relic of the past, nothing more than a ripoff of classic Scorsese films from the ‘70s and ‘80s, or was it a bold, revolutionary step forward in showing that comic book fans and average moviegoers are willing to step out of their comfort zone? Let’s apply some clown makeup to our faces and find out.

The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a down on his luck, mentally ill man who lives in a crumbling apartment with his mother and is an aspiring comedian. Arthur lives in an economically-collapsed, poverty-stricken version of Gotham City from the Batman franchise, and his story serves as a new origin for the iconic Batman villain, the Joker. This story is much less about action than previous versions of Batman and his world, and more focused on telling a gripping dramatic narrative with elements of social commentary that are not only taking from the Scorsese movies Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy that it is inspired by, but also takes from the modern American political landscape of the late 2010s and early 2020s. The themes of income and wealth inequality, mental illness, and social unrest have only proved to be more and more relevant in our culture since the film came out. It is because of these themes and how cleverly they are applied to the Batman universe, that watching this film now feels much more relevant than it already did five years ago.

However, it is one thing to have poignant themes and relevant social commentary, but these are not things that will necessarily speak to the overall quality of a film. Thankfully, this film delivers successfully on all of its creative and technical endeavors. All the performances in the film are fantastic, with Phoenix delivering one of the best performances of his career, leading to him winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was able to expertly portray a character who was easy to take pity on but was believable in becoming as unhinged as he eventually becomes. The cinematography is beautiful, purposeful, and well-balanced between colorful and dreary when it needed to be. The scenes were edited together quite well, making for a film that was perfectly paced and very easy to watch without losing interest. The score and soundtrack were both perfect at knowing exactly how to set the tone for each scene and breathed life into the story in a truly engaging way. Many of these attributes can in some part be credited to Todd Phillips, who directed the film quite well and was able to shock and surprise audiences by making a film that differed so drastically in tone from the comedies he is best known for making.

Much to the surprise of many (although maybe not that surprising based on its financial success), a sequel to the film has been announced, titled Joker: Folie à Deux that is set to release this October, marking exactly five years since the first one came out. Not much is currently known about it other than that Lady Gaga will be co-starring alongside Phoenix as the Joker’s infamous girlfriend and confidant, Harley Quinn, and that it will be a musical. The film seems to be an experimental sequel that will take the story in a new and unique stylistic direction. Despite the concept being strange and different, it is probably the best call overall. The first film really did not need to have a sequel, so if they were going to make one, it’s probably for the best that they do something completely new and off the wall with it. 

The uniqueness of the first Joker film has actually helped it to age quite well five years after the fact. While traditional comic book movies had reached their peak in 2019 with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, the past half-decade hasn’t been too nice to the genre. Marvel and DC have both lost a lot of audience engagement that helped them to reach massive heights in the box office that they had in the late 2010s. Both companies had films with astronomically large budgets that released last year that flopped at the box office, making the future of the genre concerning to say the least. However, Joker proved to be a film that was ahead of its time, being a lower-budget comic book movie that took a popular character in a new direction that was put together by talented filmmakers. This largely seems to be the direction the industry will need to move in if they want to maintain relevance and make a sizable profit while doing it. Hopefully the studio heads at Marvel and DC look to this film as a blueprint for the future of the genre so that they have long lives ahead of them that make more cents than their potential deaths.