Even if you only watch a few seconds of one of the trailers for “Joker,” it’s readily apparent that director Todd Phillips has created a film that isn’t from this era. And in doing so, the filmmaker has accomplished a variety of things.
In a new interview (via Collider), Phillips explains the multitude of reasons why “Joker” isn’t set in the modern-day. And judging by all the reasons the filmmaker gives, it’s clear that there’s no way he could have made this film without setting it in the very specific era it exists in.
“One reason was to separate [‘Joker’], quite frankly, from the DC Universe,” said Phillips. “When we pitched it to Warner Bros. and handed the script in to sort of make it clear, this isn’t fucking with anything you have going on. This is like a separate universe. So much so, it takes place in the past before everything else.”
He continued, “Another reason is because tonally, the movie is very much a character study…But in the ‘70s and ‘80s, they were much more frequent [than today], so in a way, it was also just an homage to that time where making a movie that feels like that, then why not set it there?…And part of the reason that every filmmaker likes to do things, period, is so you don’t have to deal with fucking technology in movies, because it’s so frustrating.”
Phillips also goes on to say that another reason why he chose the nebulous time period is because he wanted to harken back to the “handmade” feel of the films of that era. Especially considering that films of 2019 are so reliant on CGI and fancy tricks.
“So there’s a bunch of reasons, but there’s something else,” he added. “I like the handmade feel of those movies back then. And we tried to kind of inject that. Being that we were going basically no CGI, which doesn’t mean none, there’s obviously some world building we’ve done, but there’s some real handmade quality to those films in the late-‘70s and ‘80s that I just always loved, I’m sure.”
Honestly, judging by the reaction that the film has received from its first couple of stops on the fall film festival circuit, the time-period of “Joker” is one of the least interesting aspects of the project. With what most people are saying is a performance that launches Joaquin Phoenix to the top of the Best Actor Oscar race and a plot/message of the film that seems to both excite and infuriate others, the fact that “Joker” isn’t in the modern-day or tied to the current DCEU seems to be an afterthought.
“Joker” opens in theaters on October 4.
