- He literally embodied-- embodied this role.
- (FBE) Of all the Jokers you see here,
who do you think had the best portrayal?
- Each generation has their own Joker and I think that's
a cool thing that everybody has.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- Ooh, Joker.
- I just saw this.
- I just watched this.
- (woman) Can you please stop bothering my kid?
- That would be me as a mom. I would be like, "Leave him alone."
- (woman) This is the last time we'll be meeting.
- (man) You don't listen, do you? - He literally embodied--
embodied this role.
- (man) You don't listen, do you? - This is a hard character.
So many interpretations.
- (man) You just ask the same questions every week.
- He might mess around with an Oscar for this.
- (man) Are you having any negative thoughts?
- His ribs scare me.
- Look how much weight he lost.
That's so crazy.
- (man) Are negative thoughts. - He's such a good actor.
- When I saw this trailer, I was like--
I had my doubts and then I saw it
and I was like, this is a masterpiece.
- (man) For my whole life, I didn't know if I even
really existed, but I do.
- A lot darker than I thought it would be,
but it makes sense if you know the comics at all.
- Oh, and the laughing.
- Got tired of them picking on him.
He's like, "Yo, I ain't gonna take this no more, man."
- (Joker) Murray, one small thing. - (man) Yeah?
- (Joker) When you bring me out,
- Can you introduce me as Joker?
- (Joker) When you bring me out, - Can you introduce me as Joker?
It's so good.
- He said, "'cause that's what you called me when you were on TV,
you called me Joker."
- Joker, yes.
- Joker is one of the darkest DC villains probably,
if you think about it, if you know the character,
and this movie, I think-- I don't know if people
weren't expecting it to be this dark,
but also realizing that most of it was probably
all in his head.
- (FBE) So, that was the trailer for the film Joker
starring Joaquin Phoenix. Everybody in this episode
has seen the film and if you haven't at home,
fair warning, there will be spoilers,
so before we have you all give us your reviews
and dive into questions, we're gonna have various
YouTube channels break down their thoughts and theories
around the film. - Ooh.
I saw a lot of articles saying, "Don't take your kids
to see this movie." Which, duh.
It's rated R.
- I heard they hate it. I heard people waked out.
They were triggered. I've kinda been--
can't stop thinking about it and I need to see it again
as soon as possible.
- I've seen what people are saying on Twitter.
Some people are liking it, but I don't know.
I'm an open book. I wanna hear some opinions.
- (Chris) Just when you thought there could be no other
Joker laugh or another take at this laugh.
- Oh yeah, I loved the laugh.
- (Chris) Phoenix once again surprises with something
that feels painful. - Oh yeah, that's true.
- (Chris) He's laughing and then you can tell
his throat catches. - Yeah.
- Yeah, that was one of the things,
because it's supposed to be an illness of his.
It's a neurological disorder that makes him laugh.
- (Chris) He starts coughing and he holds his chest.
- There was a couple times I thought he couldn't breathe.
- (Chris) Laughing this hard is actually physically painful
for him. - Also, I just feel like that's
partially because he smokes cigarettes throughout
the entire duration of the film.
- (Chris) It is very inspired by the blueprints
of Taxi Driver. - Yeah, I can see that.
- (Chris) That feel like they are taken from Taxi Driver.
- And De Niro's in it.
- (Chris) And King of Comedy. There is just a little bit
too much of that. - I mean, there's nothing wrong
with a little bit of inspiration.
- (Chris) You can't escape the fact that it is absolutely inspired
by those films that came before it.
- Yeah. Definitely saw the similarities.
Tone, even some of the shots. I think that's okay.
Homage is fine. I don't have a problem with homage,
especially with a younger audience that's not gonna know
these movies.
- (Chris) One of the biggest challenges with a film like this
is taking a character who is turning towards evil
and having him be the protagonist. How do you carry a character
like this throughout the whole movie without having that good person,
like Batman, come in and say, - Yeah.
- (Chris) "Hey, this is wrong. You're gonna be in
a padded cell forever." - That's a pretty good impression.
- (Chris) The lack of a heroic character is what makes
this film special. - Absolutely.
- (Chris) Audience ask some hard questions.
Questions like, what role do we play in creating
the Joker? - That's so true.
As things were happening to him that just weren't great,
I was like, uh oh. And I did,
I started to think about today and bullying
and things like that.
- (FBE) That was Chris Stuckmann breaking down
the film. Would you agree with Chris
that there was a lack of a heroic character in the film?
- There was no hero in this film, in my opinion.
Everyone in this movie is bad, even his mom turned out
to be bad in the end.
- I don't think I've ever seen a movie like this
where the main character, the protagonist, is a villain,
essentially, and there's not that hero that sweeps in
and fixes everything. Did I feel sorry for him
at some points? I did, but he's also
a very dark character. He's a murderer.
I'm not trying to justify anything that they did,
but you could see where it's-- I understand the controversy.
- (Jeremy) I need to stress, this isn't a Joker movie.
I mean, it's titled Joker, but if you're going into
this movie and like, "All right, we're gonna see
the Joker wreck some [bleep]." It's a bit more of a slow burn
than that. - I mean, he still [bleep]
some [bleep], but in a way that psychologically terrorizes you.
- (Jeremy) You're getting a character movie.
This movie should be called Arthur.
- Arthur.
- (Jeremy) In the comment section of one of my videos
about this movie, one of the trailer videos.
I was like, "I can't-- I hope there's a lot of action"
or something like that. I was like, "That is gonna be
one disappointed person." - Yeah.
- (Jeremy) It's not an action movie. - I thought it was still great.
- (Jeremy) The journey of Arthur, it's not just like,
oh, he's Arthur Fleck, this dumpy, kinda sad guy
and then one day, he's the Joker.
- That is the cool thing is there's such a buildup.
- (Jeremy) We're different from where we started.
[Bleep], [bleep], how did we get here?
- That's so true.
- (Jeremy) I will say, yeah, sometimes the movie
is uncomfortable, but that's because it feels so real.
- Yeah.
- (Jeremy) It doesn't feel like a comic book villain.
- Agree with that.
- (Jeremy) Joker, gonna get dipped in acid
or even dipped in society. He's gonna put on the makeup
and commit some crimes. The entire time,
you're rooting for him to not snap like that.
- I was.
- (Jeremy) All right, let's snap and get to the real [bleep].
- Right, let's get to the gritty stuff, yeah.
- (Jeremy) You're actually pulling for him to not do that.
- Yes.
- It humanized him a lot.
- (Jeremy) This movie's uncomfortable.
Good job, movie, for doing your job.
- Yeah, agreed. It wants to move you.
If it moves you into uncomfortability,
then it did its job.
- (FBE) That was Jeremy Jahns, so mentioned that this movie
wasn't necessarily a Joker movie. Do you think this film
could stand out on its own without the comic book elements
as simply depiction of a man's descent into violent madness?
- I mean, I guess that it could stand on its own,
but I feel like it-- the reason why it is
so popular is because it's attached to this
comic book franchise of Batman. It brings it even closer to you
when it's a subject matter that you already know a bit about.
- It could have been a standalone movie
just by itself and a guy just going
through his [bleep] and doing whatever,
but the Joker element to it is bringing a lot more fans,
'cause everybody knows about Joker.
The studio people know-- they know what they're doing.
This is gonna be a franchise.
- They were tackling issues that we are dealing with today
with gun violence and mental illness and I think maybe that's it.
Maybe because they're really hitting hard on those issues
with this character, it felt more real.
- (FBE) So, Joker has been portrayed many times
across film, TV, and beyond and many often ask,
who's the best Joker of all time? So, now we're gonna pull up
images of some of the most iconic Jokers from the past
before Joaquin Phoenix's take on the role
to see who you think had the best portrayal.
- Yeah, I think I only know Heath Ledger and then
Jack Nicholson.
- (FBE) The first one up is Cesar Romero from 1966.
- Yeah, I've seen this in the OG Batman.
He was a quirky Joker. Very comic book
and it's the '60s, so that was fun.
- (FBE) Next one is Jack Nicholson.
- Yeah, definitely remember Jack Nicholson.
- That was classic.
- (FBE) Next is Mark Hamill, who played the animated version
of the Joker. - From Batman: The Animated Series.
- He's an icon, obviously. He was Luke Skywalker
and I didn't realize he did a lot of voice acting.
This just happens to be one of them.
- The way he does bipolar disorder
that Joker clearly has, he's all of a sudden down here
and then he just like, "Harley" and then he just
comes up here and he's just-- it comes out of nowhere
that you're scared. Even when he's calm,
you're like, he could crack at any moment.
- (FBE) And then Heath Ledger. - He brought it back to life.
He made it his own.
- Since he passed away, he's one of those actors
that I wish could have lived longer and done more movies,
but then also, I love the Dark Knight series
and I loved this movie that he's fantastic.
- (FBE) Last but not least, Jared Leto.
- Ugh, we just cut him out. Cut him out.
I hate it so much.
- I like the look, but it just wasn't there.
- I just don't really have much to say about that one
and that's sad, because I feel like he probably
did put quite a bit of work into it
and I don't think we got to see a lot of that work.
- (FBE) Of all the Jokers you see here,
who do you think had the best portrayal?
- Jack Nicholson.
- Cesar Romero from the show. It was campy and ridiculous.
- One that sticks with me the most is gotta be Mark Hamill.
- Growing up, I watched the Heath Ledger ones,
so I'm just gonna naturally gravitate towards that.
- Heath Ledger has such a special place in my heart.
Each generation has their own Joker and I think that's
a cool thing that everybody kinda has.
- (FBE) So you've seen the film, you've seen people's
breakdown of the film. We wanna know,
what did you think of it? - When I walked out of the theater,
I was like, that was such a good movie.
I felt so drawn in the whole time and especially once I realized
that things weren't as they seemed, I was like, what's next?
- It was a perfect mix of tragedy and it was dark
and it was unsettling, but it was the most--
the performance that Joaquin Phoenix has
is just mind blowing.
- I liked it a lot and I feel like this could be
a trend for other characters doing this type of movie
where you know they're going to be the villain.
You know the end of the story, but see how they got there.
- It's a great, great movie. It hits on issues
that we're dealing with today. I experienced emotions
that I don't think I've truly felt in a movie theater before
of the fear and anxiety, the compassion for someone
that's going through something like he did,
but then also him becoming this evil person because
of the path that he ended up going down.
- (FBE) The film has been polarizing overall,
many people loving it, and others having strong
critiques against it. One thing people have said
and brought up earlier in the episode is the idea
that the movie presents the character of the Joker
as a protagonist with the audience sympathizing with him.
- Yeah, people gonna sympathize with him because
a lot of people see themselves in him.
I'm being mistreated, how it is out here in society.
I'm not getting the right breaks. Everything's not going my way.
- (FBE) Did you find yourself sympathizing at some points
to a certain extent or no? - I felt bad for him.
You don't wanna see people get knocked around,
but he's not a very likable person.
He's got a lot of issues. You feel bad for him
and that he can't get the help he needs.
- I think the criticism is ridiculous.
We just keep blaming movies for our ideas of life
for our actions afterwards. You can't blame someone else
for what your actions are. It's what you chose to do.
- I didn't really sympathize with the Joker aside
from the opening scene, so I thought that the movie
did a pretty good job of, "This is a bad person."
- It's important to-- and it's also nice to understand
where a person's coming from. Even though it's not--
you shouldn't justify his actions,
it was definitely-- it's important to see why
they are the way that they are, so you can--
you find the root of the problem and then you can fix it,
so I think that's what was awesome about this movie
is that it showed that and although it's not good,
it's not okay, it's just-- it's interesting.
- What they've done with him is they've represented
at least two things that I took out of it was
bullying and mental illness. I feel like they really
touched on those issues that we deal with as a society
that maybe we-- sometimes we shrug off
or we don't take seriously that somebody can go down
a dark path, maybe not as bad as Joker,
but if we don't take care of each other or treat each other
with kindness, there's somebody that could get hurt
and it could lead them down a path that isn't a good one.
- (FBE) Finally, director Todd Phillips has mentioned
that he wanted to sneak a real movie under the guise
of a comic book film with some critics pointing out
that the film transcends comic book films
and acts more as a character study of sorts.
We've seen an uptick in R rated superhero films
with darker tones and themes, with the success of Logan,
Deadpool, and now Joker. Would you consider this
a comic book film or an evolution of these
blockbusters? - I think an evolution
of the blockbusters. It is straying away from
the classic comic book type film and I like that
because it's taking its own twist on it,
'cause it's fiction.
- This is a gorgeous little blend. I love this because people
who are into comic books can watch this and love it
and people who aren't can be like,
"Oh, this is kinda fun." and then this is obviously
gonna drive so much interest for DC that wasn't there.
- It's still a comic book movie because it's about
this character from a comic book, but I think comic book characters
have real lives too and we need to--
it's great to see those stories especially when they're
portrayed like the one we saw with Joker.
- Thanks for watching this twisted episode of Adults React.
Shoutout to Kyle Parman.
- Subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss an episode.
- Thanks for watching, bye.
- Hi guys, I'm JC here, producer here at FBE.
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