Joker is now out in cinemas, and people are going to see it in their droves, however, many viewers were left confused by Joker’s ending.
It’s definitely split opinion. Some people think it’s brilliant – the best comic book movie ever made. Others aren’t so keen on it and think it was all overhyped.
I thought it was incredible and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the Joker, a.k.a. Arthur Fleck, was Oscar-worthy.
You can check out what I said about the movie in full in my review.
I have to warn all of you. There are spoilers in the rest of this article because I’m about to discuss the end of the movie.
Todd Phillips was discussing the film with ComicBook.com, and they got onto the subject of the film’s conclusion which had audiences scratching their heads in confusion.
Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker in Joker – Credit: Warner Bros.
Read more: Here’s The Real Reason Why Joker Doesn’t Have A Post Credits Scene
The moment in question sees Arthur Fleck in his white Arkham Asylum overalls talking to a counsellor. He starts to laugh, and she asks what’s so funny. He looks up at her and replies: “You wouldn’t get it.”
This ending got fans talking because it’s really ambiguous. Was everything they had just witnessed ‘canon’, or was it all just a figment of Arthur’s imagination?
Well, Todd was on hand to offer some sort of explanation during his conversation with ComicBook.com.
“When Scott Silver and I sat down to write it, we knew enough about the comics. I read comics when I was a kid. We knew he didn’t have an origin story. We also, I don’t want to say whether it’s real or not because I think part of the fun, I’ve shown it to many, many different people and they all have a different reaction. Some of them say, ‘Oh I get it, I mean the last line in the movie, you wouldn’t get it, to a joke he was telling. Well is the joke the movie? Is the joke the thing? Or is the thing about the –‘ The idea is you don’t like to answer those questions, because it’s nice to see the different things people take away from it.”
Todd likes the fact that his movie is making people ask questions, and the ending got a lot of people taking.
However, the writer/director wasn’t quite finished. He continued:
“That was the idea, the idea that all of ‘My past is multiple,’ I like to think of my past as multiple choice, it’s a little bit of like, ‘Wait, did that happen? Did this?’ It’s really kind of fun when you make a movie with an unreliable narrator. There is no greater unreliable narrator than Joker. He’s an unreliable narrator, and he’s Joker, so it’s sort of like a double whammy, and so I think that lends to people’s reaction to the movie and I like that people don’t really know what happened. There are certain things if you see it again, on a second viewing, you’ll notice about that white room at the end that kind of picks up at the beginning, and you go, ‘Oh, wait a minute, that’s interesting.’ It’s kind of one of those.”
Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck in Joker (Credit: Warner Bros.)
Read more: 5 Movies You Should Watch If You Think Robert Pattinson Shouldn’t Play Batman
Joker is in cinemas now, and I honestly think I’m going to catch it a second time. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie twice in the cinema, but I believe that Joker is worth a repeat viewing.
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