Film

Joker

A grim, unglamorous origin story that plays less like a comic book movie and more like a character study of a man being ground down by the world around him. Phoenix's performance is the whole show — twitchy, sad, occasionally terrifying. It's for people who want their supervillain movies to feel like actual tragedies, shot through with 1970s New York grit.

TMDb rating8.1

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Taxi Driver1976

Scorsese's fingerprints are all over Joker, and this is the source: a lonely, alienated man in a decaying city, slowly convincing himself that violence is a form of purpose.

But It's slower and colder than Joker, with none of the comic-book scaffolding to soften the descent.

Taxi Driver poster

The King of Comedy1982

De Niro plays the failed comedian this time, obsessed with fame and validation. Joker borrows its plot, its texture, even its casting logic — De Niro flips sides here.

But It's a satire first, a thriller second — uncomfortable rather than explosive, and the humour is very dry.

The King of Comedy poster

American Psycho2000

Another meticulous unraveling of a man performing sanity for a world that doesn't deserve his honesty. Bale's Bateman is Arthur's slicker, wealthier cousin.

But It's satire wearing a slasher's coat — if you want sincerity over irony, this will feel like it's smirking at you.

American Psycho poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Modern Times1936

Joker's clown imagery and its portrait of poverty crushing a man's dignity both descend directly from Chaplin's Tramp — the same wounded clown, ninety years earlier and completely without malice.

Chaplin's Tramp, starving and mistreated by an indifferent industrial city, is the ancestor of every sad-clown antihero cinema has made since — including Arthur Fleck.

But It's silent, sentimental, and gentle where Joker is brutal — expect pathos through slapstick, not violence.

Modern Times poster
More like this (8)

Fight Club1999

A disaffected everyman builds an alter ego out of rage against a system that's failed him. Same DNA, glossier delivery, and a twist Joker deliberately avoids.

But Its cool, stylised nihilism is almost the opposite of Joker's grubby sincerity — you may find it too pleased with itself.

Fight Club poster

Nightcrawler2014

Gyllenhaal's ambulance-chasing cameraman is Arthur's spiritual sibling — hollow-eyed, single-minded, and horrifyingly competent once he stops caring what anyone thinks.

But There's no sympathy valve here at all; it's colder and more clinical, with a protagonist who's never remotely likeable.

Nightcrawler poster

You Were Never Really Here2017

Joaquin Phoenix again, in a role that's almost Joker's photo negative — a broken, violent man trying to protect rather than destroy, filmed with the same queasy intimacy.

But It's fragmented and impressionistic rather than narrative-driven; some will find it frustratingly opaque.

You Were Never Really Here poster

The Machinist2004

Christian Bale starved himself for this role about insomnia, guilt, and a mind quietly collapsing — the physical transformation echoes Phoenix's own commitment.

But It's a much smaller, stranger film, more psychological puzzle-box than character tragedy.

The Machinist poster

Falling Down1993

Michael Douglas as an ordinary man snapping under the accumulated weight of a broken city — this is Joker's premise stripped of comic-book mythology entirely.

But Its politics are messier and more dated than Joker's, and the tone veers between satire and sincerity.

Falling Down poster

A Clockwork Orange1971

Kubrick's stylised violence and unreliable charm still cast a long shadow over any film asking you to sympathise with a monster.

But It's colder, more theatrical, and more interested in ideas about free will than in emotional interiority.

A Clockwork Orange poster

Grizzly Man2005

Both are studies of an unreliable narrator constructing a heroic myth around his own suffering, filmed with genuine sympathy right up until the moment that sympathy becomes unbearable.

Werner Herzog's documentary about a man who filmed his own delusional relationship with wild bears is a real-life study of self-mythology curdling into tragedy.

But It's a documentary with real death at its centre — no fictional distance to soften the discomfort.

Grizzly Man poster

The Toxic Avenger1984

Strip away Joker's grim prestige-drama seriousness and you get exactly this structure: rejected outcast becomes disfigured avenger, adored by the city's underclass — just played for laughs instead of dread.

A bullied, disfigured outcast is rejected by society, transforms into something monstrous, and becomes a violent folk hero to the very people who despised him.

But It's gleeful, gory schlock with zero pretensions to tragedy — pure trash-cinema fun, not psychological depth.

The Toxic Avenger poster

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The Dark Knight, The Master, Taxi Driver, Falling Down, The Batman, The King of Comedy, You Were Never Really Here