10 Subtle Details That Make Joaquin Phoenix's Joker Incredible

2. He Makes Himself Big

And on a related point, we see at several points that Arthur likes to dance as a sort of therapy of freedom. It's when he feels some sense of happiness (even as he claims he never feels it) and it's part of his ritual of appearing sexually appealing and fitting in with what he thinks real men are like. He also uses it as part of his ritual to calm and prepare himself, sort of like he's doing karate, which we see a condensed version of later as he prepares to go on stage on Murray's show.

But it isn't just normal dancing - the movements are pronounced and balletic and for the most part, involve Arthur making himself appear bigger than he is - lifting his arms into the air to appear more menacing as an animal would. It's a display that's part of him trying to be seen. When he's on Murray's show he bemoans how people don't notice him, how they'd step over him and people like him - his dance ritual is an answer to that.

And really tellingly, after it's revealed that his relationship with Sophie is a figment of fantasy and he "snaps" finally, the camera shoots him from below as he stalks along the corridor. At this point, he no longer needs to pretend to be big.