Todd Phillips admittedly needed to fill big shoes when making Joker. Luckily, he had several movies to draw from as he re-interpreted the Clown Prince of Crime.
A disturbed New York cab driver befriends a teenage hooker and frees her from her pimp.
Another Scorsese classic with Robert De Niro, a violent, obsessive boxer slowly ruins everything he has in and out of the ring.
Yes, Phillips did work on it. But there was plenty to draw from this ridiculous comedy about three guys dealing with a patchy memory of a bachelor party in Vegas.
A man disfigured with a large smile permanently on his face, Gwynplaine is hopeless as a freakshow star until he meets Josiana. The Joker character in the comics was based on Gwynplaine, but Phillips was able to pull a bit of his own inspiration from this drama-horror.
NYPD officer Frank Serpico is out to expose corruption but ends up being targeted by his friends on the force in this 1970s neo-noir.