Joker: Folie à Deux hasn’t made a great impression on fans of the first film, prompting an examination of movies more similar to 2019’s Joker to watch as a palette cleanser. Openly antagonistic towards fans of the previous film, Joker: Folie à Deux failed to reach an audience, flopping even harder than infamous comic book movie bombs like Morbius and Madame Web. With the sequel so widely disappointing for those who enjoyed Joker, it’s a better time than ever to examine some great films that are more similar to the first film than Joker: Folie à Deux is.
The themes of Joker include mental health, loneliness, abuse, and societal disenfranchisement, all of which are better represented elsewhere than in the commercial disaster that is Joker: Folie à Deux. Some of these films are obvious influences on the original, reflecting themselves through Todd Phillips’ work both stylistically and thematically. Others are simple great chasers to the ideas presented in Joker, building upon them without the burden of DC Comics representation.
10 Falling Down
A true portrait of a man spiraling out of control
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Falling Down R
Director Joel Schumacher Release Date February 26, 1993 Cast Michael Douglas , Robert Duvall , Barbara Hershey , Tuesday Weld , Rachel Ticotin , Frederic Forrest Runtime 113 minutes
If there’s one thing Joker could’ve done differently to get its point across, it would be to make Arthur Fleck more of a force to be reckoned with, giving him a far more visceral fall from grace.Falling Down accomplishes just that, following the downward spiral of a seemingly normal protagonist who quickly exposes who he really is.
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The film centers on William Foster, a defense engineer attempting to make it across Los Angeles in time for his daughter’s birthday party at his ex-wife’s house. Foster is subjected to a mixture of minor inconveniences and dangerous situations that quickly unshackle his latent inner violence, prompting dramatically chaotic responses from what seems to be, on the surface, a rule-following citizen.
Like Joker, Falling Down is quite a bleak film, centered on the relatability of its protagonist’s frustrations with the world around him. If Arthur Fleck was a great deal more dangerous and less theatrical, he’d look something like William Foster.
9 The Dark Knight
The answer to why Joker’s origin should stay unanswered
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10/10 16 9.6/10 The Dark Knight PG-13
Director Christopher Nolan Release Date July 18, 2008 Cast Christian Bale , Heath Ledger , Michael Caine , Morgan Freeman , Nestor Carbonell , Ritchie Coster , Cillian Murphy , Chin Han , Gary Oldman , Eric Roberts , William Fichtner , Aaron Eckhart , Maggie Gyllenhaal , David Dastmalchian , Anthony Michael Hall Runtime 152 Minutes Franchise(s) Batman Expand
As a Batman-adjacent property, Joker makes an argument for Joaquin Phoenix putting on the best performance of the Clown Prince of Crime ever. But at the end of the day, no one can top Heath Ledger’s legendary character in The Dark Knight, still considered today to be the best Batman movie ever made. The second and most critically-acclaimed of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, this film sees Christian Bale’s Batman take on his own terrifying version of the Joker while continuing to fight corruption in Gotham.
The Dark Knight
is worth watching after
Joker
simply to bask in the only Joker performance capable of outshining Joaquin Phoenix’s.
In many ways, The Dark Knight makes the opposite point of Joker, never giving a concrete answer to the Joker’s origins. In truth, the character might be better served that way, more compelling as a chaotic force of nature than a real character with an arc of his own. The Dark Knight is worth watching after Joker simply to bask in the only Joker performance capable of outshining Joaquin Phoenix’s.
8 Taxi Driver
One of Joker’s biggest inspirations
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10/10 8/10 Taxi Driver RDramaCrime
Director Martin Scorsese Release Date February 9, 1976 Cast Robert De Niro , Jodie Foster , Cybill Shepherd , Albert Brooks , Harvey Keitel , Victor Argo , Peter Boyle Runtime 114 Minutes Writers Paul Schrader
It can’t be said that Todd Phillips didn’t wear his influences on his sleeve with Joker, as the film takes incredibly clear cues from two of prestige cinema darling Martin Scorsese’s most important films. Taxi Driver is one of the best films (not to mention one of the first) to do a character arc similar to Arthur Fleck’s – An overlooked and downtrodden member of society who violently snaps. Travis Bickle serves as Arthur’s template, a Vietnam veteran and taxi driver who seeks an outlet for his latent rage.
In truth, Taxi Driver is essentially the better version of Joker, presenting a more disturbing character study of a subject who is far more terrifying than Arthur Fleck. Unlike Phillips, Scorsese doesn’t overly labor on keeping Travis sympathetic, which makes him a more complicated and textured personality who is ultimately praised for his violence. The original model Joker mimics, Taxi Driver is a must-see for fans of the loose comic book villain origin story.
7 The King Of Comedy
Scorsese’s misunderstood masterpiece
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The King of Comedy (1982) PG
Director Martin Scorsese Release Date December 18, 1982 Cast Robert De Niro , Jerry Lewis , Sandra Bernhard , Diahnne Déa , Shelley Hack Runtime 109 Minutes
The second obvious inspiration for Joker to come out of Martin Scorsese’s filmography is easily The King of Comedy, another abrasive character-driven tale. Unlike much of Scorsese’s other work, The King of Comedy was a critical and commercial failure, only being recognized for its brilliance years later. The movie follows Robert De Niro’s Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring stand-up comedian who longs to become a peer of his long-time idol, Jerry Langford, a famous late-night TV show host.
If Arthur Fleck’s latent rage and troubles as an outcast are best represented by Travis Bickle, his sense of stage presence and longing to be adored by the public is clearly evocative of Rupert Pupkin. Just like Arthur, Rupert is obsessed with the manufactured love of the audience and the razzle-dazzle of show business surrounding it, becoming deeply disturbed and increasingly fanatical when his hero doesn’t make his dreams come true. The film also ends on a similar bleak note, condemning celebrity worship in American media culture.
6 Nightcrawler
Gets even darker than Joker
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9/10 9.5/10 Nightcrawler R
Director Dan Gilroy Release Date October 31, 2014 Cast Riz Ahmed , Bill Paxton , Jake Gyllenhaal , Rene Russo , Kevin Rahm , Michael Hyatt , Ann Cusack Runtime 117 Minutes Studio(s) Bold Films
Drama-thrillers about unsavory subjects like Joker are always intriguing, but the great lengths Todd Phillips goes to ensure a proper amount of sympathy for his Joker can sometimes get in the way. Enter Nightcrawler, a film whose protagonist has no morals whatsoever, existing solely to further his own agenda at the cost of everyone around him.
The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou, a down-on-his-luck petty thief who makes a career change as a “Stringer”, a photojournalist who chases gruesome crime scenes like shootings and car crashes for footage.
Nightcrawler has all the sleek wetness and griminess of Joker‘s visual design, not to mention the uncanny perspective of a genuine psychopath. The difference in Arthur Fleck’s breaking point and Lou’s relentless pursuit of his own goals is night and day, however, serving as two sides of the same disturbing psychosis. The lengths Lou goes to in securing his new career dives even deeper into the sort of profane shedding of morals played at by Joker.
5 Fight Club
Goes all-in on Joker’s toxic masculinity
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10/10 35 9/10 Fight Club RDrama
Director David Fincher Release Date October 15, 1999 Cast Brad Pitt , Meat Loaf , Edward Norton , Jared Leto , Helena Bonham Carter Runtime 139 minutes
It’s safe to say that the same fanbase that enjoyed Joker for its dissection of trauma, anxiety, and alienation would feel right at home in a screening of Fight Club. The film follows an unnamed protagonist, disillusioned by his life as a wage slave office drone, whose world is turned upside-down when he meets Tyler Durden, a radical revolutionary who starts a no-holds-barred underground fighting ring simply called Fight Club. Skirting around similar themes, Fight Club is infamous for its following that shares much in common with that of Joker, self-identifying with a violent character.
Where Fight Club truly shines is in its commitment to Edgar Norton’s unreliable narration, much like that of Arthur Fleck’s in Joker, which both end up having critical consequences on the story. The rejection of traditional structures Joker explored is practically the thesis statement of Fight Club, which thrives in an examination of counter-culture. The film works so well as a supplement to the character of the Joker that Fight Club is often theorized to be a Joker origin story of its own.
4 One Hour Photo
Shares a creepy fantasist lead
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One Hour Photo R
Director Mark Romanek Release Date August 21, 2002 Cast Robin Williams , Connie Nielsen , Michael Vartan , Dylan Smith , Erin Daniels , Paul H. Kim Runtime 96 minutes Writers Mark Romanek
One aspect of Joker that often doesn’t get enough attention is Arthur Fleck’s fantasies centering on Zazie Beetz’s Sophie, not an idol or a celebrity, but a normal person he has a simple pleasant interaction with that he wishes to stretch out into a relationship. A similar premise serves as the foundation of One Hour Photo, which further dissects this sort of dissociative obsession. The movie stars Robin Williams as Sy, a lonely photo developer who harbors a secret obsession with one of his repeat customers, a nuclear family who may not be as idyllic as they seem.
Robin Williams is shockingly great as such a disturbed character, sharing the fantasist tendencies of Arthur Fleck, creating his ideal world as a coping mechanism.
Sy’s loneliness is even more desolate than Arthur Fleck’s, making his puppy-dog loyalty to the Yorkin family all the more heartbreaking. His trauma is also only vaguely alluded to, which keeps the narrative from beating the viewer over the head with the point it’s trying to make while still getting across that Sy had suffered previous to the events of the film. Robin Williams is shockingly great as such a disturbed character, sharing the fantasist tendencies of Arthur Fleck, creating his ideal world as a coping mechanism.
3 American Psycho
Discovers that society can still fail the wealthy and powerful
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7/10 8.5/10 American Psycho R
Director Mary Harron Release Date April 14, 2000 Cast Jared Leto , Reese Witherspoon , Chloe Sevigny , Willem Dafoe , Justin Theroux , Christian Bale Runtime 101 minutes
Few films align with the original Joker genre-wise and syllistically as closely as American Psycho. Straying further into horror territory than its thematic ancestor, American Psycho posits Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, a successful business executive whose life is completely surface-level and obsessed with appearances, harboring a dark desire for violence on an astonishing level. The film follows Batman’s murders as he struggles to make sense of reality and his own inner demons.
American Psycho offers a similar critique of American culture through the other end of it, examining the hollow and vapid lives of supposedly successful individuals like Patrick Bateman. The film also employs some similar tricks as to the unreliability of Bateman’s perspective, as the relentless killer grasps at reality through his own tenuous sanity. From American Psycho‘s incredible soundtrack to its gut-wrenching depictions of violence, the film stands the test of time as the premiere examination of Joker‘s own themes.
2 A Clockwork Orange
Examines a similar story through the lens of the youth
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8/10 10/10 A Clockwork Orange R
Director Stanley Kubrick Release Date February 2, 1972 Cast Malcolm McDowell , Patrick Magee , Michael Bates , Warren Clarke , John Clive , Adrienne Corri Runtime 136 minutes Writers Stanley Kubrick , Anthony Burgess
One downside to Joaquin Phoenix’s casting as Arthur Fleck is his age, which misses an opportunity to disenfranchise him from the world around him via inexperience on top of everything else. A Clockwork Orange tells a similar story to Joker, only essentially in reverse, describing how a ruthless system can beat down a showy murderer and psychopath to haphazardly forge a productive citizen. The film centers on Alex, a violent youth who is captured by the dystopian government of the film’s world and forced into aversion therapy to mold him into a model member of society.
Alex’s reversal of Arthur Fleck’s arc (which ultimately ends in vain) presents a fascinating topic of discussion about how far course correction can morally go in “fixing” the inherently uncooperative. If a Joker can be pressure-cooked into existence by the callous, uncaring nature of an individualistic world, so too can an Alex be unethically reformed by the unrelenting pressure of a homogeneous social structure. In this way, A Clockwork Orange is a brilliant chaser to Joker that simply moves in the opposite direction.
1 He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not
Goes all-in on delusional romanticism
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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not PG-13
Director Laetitia Colombani Release Date March 27, 2002 Cast Audrey Tautou , Samuel Le Bihan , Isabelle Carré , Sophie Guillemin , Clément Sibony , Élodie Navarre , Eric Savin , Vania Vilers Writers Laetitia Colombani , Caroline Thivel
It’s been firmly established that stories featuring unreliable narrators are the best analgous movies to surround a Joker viewing. But after Joker: Folie à Deux‘s failed promise to explore the same themes through a more romantic angle, one might be left grasping for a similar story that fulfills the same niche. Look no further than He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not, also known by its original French language title, À la Folie… Pas du Tout. The film follows the escapades of a mentally unstable fine arts student who develops a dangerous romantic obsession with a married cardiologist.
Rather than simply implying unreliable narration, He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not shows the full effects of it, telling the same events twice over from two perspectives. He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not is comparable to fellow French-made film Amélie, only with a much more disturbing psychological thriller bent that puts it on the same dangerous level as Joker. With Joker: Folie à Deux’s promise of erotomania leaving many fans wanting, À la Folie… Pas du Tout might be the experience to try next.
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