If you ever want to sleep again, step away from Joker

Judy is in cinemas this week and so is Joker and if you have to choose between the two, then it’s Judy every time. I would even add: step away from Joker. Step away, and step away now, if you know what’s good for you. It may be a masterpiece or it may be irresponsible trash — there is some controversy here — but either way it is so bleak and so dark and so upsetting the words ‘bleak’ and ‘dark’ and ‘upsetting’ don’t really cover it, and you may never be able to sleep again. Strange as it may be, the film about the wounded Hollywood chanteuse driven to an early and tragic death is, in fact, the far sunnier proposition.

Joker is an origins story for DC Comics’ beloved cackling supervillain and stars Joaquin Phoenix, who is all thin, twisty bones and maniacal, mirthless laughter. (I don’t think I’ve been as disturbed by a performance since the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.) He plays Arthur Fleck, clown and would-be stand-up, whose weirdness — that laugh! — does not win people over. Instead, he is beaten up in the street, bullied on the subway and chastised by a mum on the bus because he plays peek-a-boo with her kid. Meanwhile, he still lives with his mother (Frances Conroy), obviously, has the hots for the young woman (Zazie Beetz) from the apartment down the hall, and longs for human connection, which is never forthcoming. His social worker even tells him that society ‘doesn’t give a shit’ about people like him.

This film will put you in mind of Taxi Driver and Travis Bickle. Also, given there is a TV chat-show host Arthur idolises (played by Robert De Niro), it will put you in mind of King of Comedy, so there is quite a lot of Scorsese going on here.