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In the movie Joker (2019), we see Penny claiming Arthur to be Thomas' son. We have Thomas refuting these claims as well.

We later learn that Penny was in an abusive relation and that she suffered mentally and physically. It seems like she was deluded about the father of Arthur. It could really have all been in her head.

It could also simply be Thomas covering his tracks and planting those records against Penny, which is really not a big task for a man of Thomas' stature.

Given all this, who was telling the truth about this whole scenario (Arthur's father)? I did watch the movie till the end and didn't miss any scenes but I was clueless who was telling the truth and I don't think this was addressed.

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    The whole movie is full of red herrings, uses the unreliable narrator device, entire sections might be figments of imagination,... The point is that there are no definite answers, IMHO.
    – BCdotWEB
    Oct 10, 2019 at 11:46
  • i agree,,, takes away the essence truly !! i really wished that wasn't the case !
    – Anu7
    Oct 10, 2019 at 12:46
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    @Anu7 True, but that is how one would essentially come to feel like the character--Being left in an unsettling place where one feels contempt for not knowing what is real and what is only in your head. Is the joke on them or is it on oneself???? :/
    – Darth Locke
    Oct 10, 2019 at 13:04
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    The Joker is a character whose origins are officially unknown as per the "usual" comic history - this way they can keep to that while still exploring the descent into madness of the character
    – Dave
    Oct 10, 2019 at 23:34
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    @DarthLocke beautifully said! I can accept this confusion :) .. Thank You !!
    – Anu7
    Oct 15, 2019 at 3:47

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https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/joker-mom-movie-penny-fleck

But one day Arthur reads one of her letters before sending it out for her, and it’s revealed that she’s asking Thomas for help because Arthur is their son, a product of an affair they had all those years ago.

It’s such a big twist that it instantly seems impossible to maintain. After all these years this movie is trying to tell us that Joker and Batman were half brothers? (“The whole time? The whole time?”) Of all the twists in this movie, this one is the most unbelievable. Sure, comic book movies have to take big swings and occasionally shake up the canon to keep viewers engrossed, but a change like this would add unnecessarily meaningful dimension to the Batman–Joker rivalry. The film, however, plays it straight and presents this revelation as fact, asking viewers to just go along with it...even though Joker’s mom-and-son duo are deluded pipe dreamers who harbor absurd fantasies.

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