Joker

Joaquin Phoenix brings out a very dark, very powerful portrayal of Arthur Fleck aka Joker and the film itself holds up an ugly mirror to the world reflecting its inexplicable treatment of mental health and marginalized society. Fleck is trying to make it as a stand up comedian but can only get jobs as a call for hire clown. Even in the close quarters of his fellow misfit clowns, Arthur is an outsider. he talks to himself, has a condition where he laughs uncontrollably at random and goes home to his frail mother whom he is the sole provider. We get a deep look at the Gotham before Batman and see how things could have gotten so bad. This is only a possible case as our narrator for the film is Moody, who is a self described moody schizophrenic, which makes him unreliable at best and outright wrong at worst. Robert DeNiro enters the scene as Murray Franklin, a talk show host who Arthur Idolizes with this mother. We are continuously shown clips of the show and Arthur slowly has his perfect image of Franklin shattered. It is amazing what kind of sympathy that Todd Phillips is able to muster from the audience for a character that we already know will become deplorable with his actions. Phillips goes after many marginalized groups in the mentally ill, the poor, the taken advantage of, the children taking care of the parent. The audience can even feel sympathy for those treating Arthur poorly. In one scene in particular, Arthur is attempting to entertain a child on a city bus. His mother sees this and immediately overreacts telling him to leave her child alone. Based on everything surrounding the altercation one can feel sympathy for the mother with the utter filth depravity we see in Gotham, one would be suspect to a random older man making faces at their child. We only know it is an overreaction because we have seen what Arthur is truly like.

While I think that the argument that Joker glorifies violence and is a dangerous film for society is over blown, I do think it is a necessary conversation to have. Unlike the John Wick films which are also Ultra violent, Joker's main protagonist is not hero and never will be. To think that these two films are in the same wheel house is absurd. Joker builds off of all the pent up anger and rage that we feel today towards the ultra rich and gives it an outlet in Thomas Wayne. The film almost feels like what would have happened if Occupy Wall street had gone horrifically wrong. John Wick asks what would happen if a good guy hitman decided to burn down a hidden assassin order. Joker should be analyzed for its portrayal of society and the question it asks of does society create it's own monsters. John Wick should be enjoyed for fun and pure amusement.

Joker easily earns an B+ for its view of society and how we need to reexamine our current situation.