After "Joker" earned $1 billion at the box office, received 11 Oscar nominations, and secured two major wins, including one for Joaquin Phoenix, it's easy to forget the initial handwringing over the film.
In the lead-up to its release in October 2019, the Todd Phillips film, a dark origin story about the mentally ill man who becomes the deranged Batman villain, hit a cultural inflection point with divisions forming before most had even seen it. People worried "Joker” would glorify violence, that people would take the wrong message and there would be incidents at movie theaters. Words like "dangerous,” "irresponsible” and "incel-friendly” were thrown around.
Even its inclusion in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival was enough to get people gossiping. (Its sequel, "Joker: Folie a Deux,” will also be debuting in competition at Venice on Sept. 4.)
At the time, some assumed Phillips had called in a favor. How else could a comic book movie play alongside auteurs and Oscar contenders? Phillips assured the Associated Press (AP) that this was not true. But the fact that it wasn't being treated like a standard comic book movie release and instead getting the rollout of an Oscar contender was enough to send movie fans into a tizzy.
The world was further shocked when it won the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion, which in previous years had gone to films like "The Shape of Water” and "Roma.” One article called it "insane.”
Accepting Venice's top prize from jury president Lucrecia Martel, Phillips thanked Warner Bros. and DC for "stepping out of their comfort zone and taking such a bold swing on me and this movie” and Phoenix for trusting him with his "insane talents.”
It also sent a clear message to the skeptical film world: "Joker” should not be underestimated or dismissed. Neither was Phillips, a filmmaker whose biggest successes at that point came from frat-bro comedies like "The Hangover” and "Old School.”
Phillips took cues from movies like Martin Scorsese’s "Taxi Driver” and "The King of Comedy” to add a disturbing realism to the story. He does not fall into a vat of acid and come out laughing, he said. Instead, it's a chilling portrait of a loner pushed over the edge.
Phoenix, too, underwent a drastic physical transformation, losing 52 pounds on an extremely calorie-restricted diet with the supervision of a doctor. He told the AP he expected "feelings of dissatisfaction, hunger, a certain kind of vulnerability and a weakness.” Instead, he found the emaciation led to a physical "fluidity” that he didn’t quite anticipate.
Reviews were mostly positive and even the more critical responses admired the boldness. In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote, "Phillips and Phoenix have made something to reckon with, certainly and that alone makes it a bold exception in a frustratingly safe genre.”
Phillips wasn’t shy about discussing the film, his intentions and the criticisms.
"I just hope people see it and take it as a movie,” Phillips told the AP before its release. "Do I hope everyone loves it? No. We didn’t make the movie for everyone. Anytime anyone tries to make a movie for everyone, it’s usually for nobody. ... You have a choice. Don’t see it as the other choice.”
The concerns continued to escalate as family members of the victims of the 2012 movie theater shooting during "The Dark Knight Rises” wrote a letter to the studio’s then-CEO urging the company to advocate for gun safety.
By the time it was ready for its U.S. premieres, the studio pressed pause on interviews. The red carpets at the premiere of the Hollywood and New York Film Festival would be photo-only affairs.
"A lot has been said about ‘Joker,’ and we just feel it’s time for people to see the film,” a studio representative said at the time.
And people certainly saw it. It opened to nearly $100 million in Oct. 2019 and, by the end of its run, had grossed over $1 billion, holding the record for highest-grossing R-rated film until "Deadpool & Wolverine” passed it a few weeks ago. Phillips congratulated Shawn Levy, Marvel and Disney for the feat.
Soon, he’ll return to the Venice Film Festival, with Phoenix and Lady Gaga to debut "Joker: Folie a Deux." The expectations are higher. So are the stakes. It has a bigger budget than its $60 million predecessor, but Phillips told Variety that reports exceeding $200 million are "absurd.”
It has also already inspired a fair amount of discourse. But this time, it’s not about violence: It’s about musicals.
