Todd Phillips’ Joker movie remains a mystery, especially in a year overstuffed with other comic book movies that will make billions of dollars. It’s unclear what Warner Bros.’ reimagined origin of Batman’s archnemesis, free of DCEU constraints, will do when audiences finally get to see it. One thing is for sure; Joaquin Phoenix wouldn’t have near it if this were a conventional superhero film.
Thankfully, co-star Marc Maron says Joker is anything but traditional He tells NME…
“I think it’s a very interesting approach to this world.I’ve been somewhat judgemental when it comes to comic book movies and I’ve got a little pushback in the press for being a hypocrite. Whatever I think, if you get a call and someone says, ‘Hey do you wanna do a scene with Robert De Niro and Joaquin Phoenix?’ your principals fall to the wayside. If it’s relative to what I think of Marvel movies then it’s like, ‘Yeah, of course, I’m gonna do that.’”
He added, “Oddly, it’s not that kind of movie. The approach that Todd Phillips has taken is more of an origin story and a character study of a mentally ill person that becomes The Joker. It’s more of an intimate and gritty movie with a very specific scope. It’s going to be really interesting to see how it comes out.”
Probably the best way to look at this would be a film like Logan, which stripped away so much of the mythos surrounding the character in order to tell a grounded story of survival. I’m not convinced audiences want to see that kind of story told about the Joker if there’s no Batman around, but that’s Phillips’ and Phoenix’s job to convince us.
Joker hits theaters October 4th and co-stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Bill Camp.
