Visually, Joker is a masterpiece of atmosphere. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher paints Gotham City in hues of sickly yellow, smoggy grey, and damp green. The city is not the gothic sprawl of Tim Burton’s imagination, nor the sleek metropolis of Nolan’s trilogy. Instead, it is a festering New York stand-in, reminiscent of the real city’s "Fear City" era of the late 1970s and early 80s.
: The film was a massive hit, becoming the first R-rated film to gross over $1 billion and receiving 11 Oscar nominations, with Phoenix winning Best Actor [29, 33]. Joker -2019-
The final act, set on the Murray Franklin show, shifts to the crisp, sterile look of 80s television. When Arthur, in full regalia, kisses a woman on the cheek, dances to his entrance, and confesses to murder, the lighting is brutally flat. There is nowhere to hide. It is the ultimate confrontation between the sanitized entertainment of the past (De Niro’s Murray) and the raw, ugly truth of the present (Phoenix’s Joker). Visually, Joker is a masterpiece of atmosphere