Joker saw Joaquin Phoenix win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but his finest performance can actually be seen in a different movie. Joker, directed and co-written by Todd Phillips, provides an origin story for the most popular of Batman’s adversaries. While the film owes much of the character's intrigue to the DC source material, Phoenix gives a memorable portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime.
Phoenix's depiction is especially impressive in managing to escape the shadow of Heath Ledger’s defining performance as Joker in Joker is a divisive film, Phoenix’s acting is a remarkable aspect. He illuminates the character’s transition from Arthur Fleck, a lonely clown-for-hire who dreams of becoming a comedian, to Joker, the violent face of an anti-capitalist revolution.
Even better than his lead role in Joker, however, is Phoenix’s compelling turn as Freddie Quell, an unsettled Naval veteran, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. The film gives an eerie commentary on the new systems of religion in postwar America without directly criticizing them. Unable to adjust to life in peacetime, Phoenix’s Freddie is a frequently erratic figure. He becomes a subject of “the Cause,” a movement championing unorthodox and spiritual methods of healing, after meeting its “Master,” Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). The film is interested in the comparability of and intimacy between Freddie and Lancaster. The pair share a penchant for intoxication, be it by Freddie’s moonshine or Lancaster’s didactic elocution.
Paul Thomas Anderson notes the significance of Phoenix’s performance in providing depth to the character of Freddie. In conversation with film critic Mark Kermode (via BBC Radio 5 Live), Anderson its that he had intended to film some traumatic war scenes for contextualization but explains: “I the first day of shooting, taking one look at his face and thinking, you don’t need to shoot anything.” Phoenix’s deeply expressive portrayal of Freddie sees the actor at his absolute best, perfectly embodying the pain and aimlessness that Freddie experiences following his time in the war.
Phoenix provides the depth and gravity essential for an origin story in Joker, but his performance as Freddie Quell in The Master is even more evocative. He artfully portrays the details and nuances of an intricate character without the scenes of Freddie's past visually presented to the audience. While setting and context were required as part of Joker’s narrative structure, The Master witnesses Joaquin Phoenix flourishing in a role where he is given considerable performative license.
