The poster dropped on Tuesday, and now your patience has been rewarded a scant 24 hours later. That’s right, the first teaser for Todd Phillips’ Joker, starring the one and only Joaquin Phoenix, has hit the internet after debuting at Cinemacon — a giant Las Vegas trade show for exhibitors, similar to CES or E3, where the assembled press and industry people watch a whole bunch of movie trailers and clips behind closed doors to tell you what upcoming films look good — on Tuesday night. Many were expecting something short and scant, perhaps offering a few tastes of what’s to come but little else, but we’ve got ourselves a full two and a half minutes of footage from the upcoming movie, including our first glimpses at Robert De Niro and Zasie Beetz in their roles. It is something else, friends.
Put on a happy face and take a look at the teaser:
Well, we’re immediately aware of two things. First, there are a ton of visual references to Scorsese here, aside from the obvious ones (Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy being the main point of allusion), and second, this looks a whole lot like an off-brand You Were Never Really Here, which you should absolutely go and watch if this preview for Joker stirs your up passions. We’re going to give this one the benefit of the doubt — that’s one hell of a striking trailer, after all — but only time will tell if the man who brought us The Hangover trilogy will be able to pull this off. But we’ll be there for Joaquin Phoenix any day of the week, so this most definitely has us fascinated. Also, disgusted! Why on Earth would Bruce Wayne let this gross dude put fingers in his mouth? You don’t know where those hands have been!
Joker hits theaters on October 4.