Is Joaquin Phoenix on for Oscar glory with Joker?

Ever since “Joker” premiered and won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival,there has been a lot of chatter about if this is the year Oscar bestows the Best Actor honor on Joaquin Phoenix.

His turn as Joker in this stand-alone film – that isn’t an origin story in the DC Extended Universe – is tour-de-force.

This twisted, dark character study of one man’s descent into villainy is a touch of Howard Beale in “Network” and Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver.” Or course, both Peter Finch and Robert de Niro were nominated for Best Actor in 1976 for their turns as those iconic characters, with Finch winning the Oscar.

Oddsmakers at SBR’s top sportsbooks, too, are weighing the Best Actor options, and Phoenix is at the top of the list.

He’s been nominated for Oscar three times before:

• 2013 – Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in “The Master”
• 2006 — Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in “Walk the Line”
• 2001 – Best Actor in a Supporting Role in “Gladiator”

It took Leonardo DiCaprio five tries before he won for “The Revenant” in 2016.

The great Peter O’Toole was nominated eight times and never won. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him an honorary Oscar in 2003. Richard Burton was nominated seven times and never won – not even an honorary one.

Phoenix’s portrayal of Joker shows the setbacks the character endures – job loss, humiliation, failure as a comedian in the eyes of his hero (played by de Niro, by the way) — that puts him on the slippery slope of becoming a pathological bad guy.

But it won’t necessarily be a clown show at the 92^ndAcademy Awards airing on Feb. 9, 2020. Phoenix, if nominated, will have some stiff competition. Possible other nominees are:

• Antonio Banderas in “Pain & Glory”
• Leonardo DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood”
• Robert de Niro for “The Irishman”
• Adam Driver for “The Report” and/or “Marriage Story”
• Michael B. Jordan in “Just Mercy”
• Ian McKellan in “The Good Liar”
• Eddie Murphy in “Dolemite is My Name”
• Jonathan Pryce in “The Two Popes”
• Adam Sandler in “Uncut Gems”

These are all formidable opponents for the top acting prize but many believe the roar of the greasepaint is loud for Phoenix.

Among the reasons entertainment and critics cite as putting Phoenix in frontrunner status is the movie’s film festival victory, Phoenix’s status as being “overdue for Oscar,” the character is a proven winner (Heath Ledger in 2009), and, most importantly the believability of his characterization of a crazed, vengeful and nearly hysterical hostile man who turns to violence when the world rejects him.

It also doesn’t hurt that he also transformed his body, losing 50 pounds, and Phoenix crediting that weight loss as helping him more fully tap into the character.

“I think the interesting thing for me is what I had expected and anticipated with the weight loss was these feelings of dissatisfaction, hunger, a certain kind of vulnerability and a weakness,” Phoenix told the Associated Press. “But what I didn’t anticipate was this feeling of kind of fluidity that I felt physically. I felt like I could move my body in ways that I hadn’t been able to before. And I think that really lent itself to some of the physical movement that started to emerge as an important part of the character.”

In the past, Oscar voters have honored such commitment to roles, notably weight fluctuation, such as de Niro who won playing both a tight and bloated Jake La Motta in “Raging Bull” (1980).

Charlize Theron took home Oscar after she gained 30 pounds and toned down her beauty to play a serial killer in “Monster” (2003). George Clooney, who took home Best Supporting Actor, packed on 30 pounds for 2006’s “Syriana.” And Christian Bale lost 60 pounds and won Best Actor for playing real-life boxing champ Dicky Ecklund in “The Fighter” (2010).

An unknown factor which could throw a wrench into “Joker” nominations overall is the timing of the movie – coming months after mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Also, concerns of further violence similar to what occurred in 2012 in Aurora, Colorado at the opening of “The Dark Knight Rises” could put a chill on nominations for the film.

We’ll know when the nominations are announced on January 13th, 2020.