Continuing our new series of film reviews where Roudi reviews films in under 451 words, we bring you her thoughts on JOKER
1981, Gotham City. Arthur Fleck struggles to make a living to take care of himself and his sickly mother, Penny. An unfunny, poor clown (on a social level) who is bullied, beaten down and misunderstood (on a personal level), Arthur lives a painful life with a unique neurological disorder: an uncontrollable crackling laugh whenever he’s nervous, almost like the manifestation of his screams trapped inside him. He’s in severe need of mental healthcare, attention and a father figure that could offer him a warm embrace for once. No need to repeat the resemblance of Todd Philips’ Joker to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Taxi Driver (1976), King of Comedy (1982) and other 70’s and 80’s movies, as that must already be apparent. As viewers we are thrust disturbingly back into the world of late 70’s and early 80’s America. The government cuts the social work service and Arthur loses his medication and counseling (while the social workers lose their jobs). We then see the demise of Arthur and the rise of Joker from the heart of his nasty life.
New York/Gotham: this breathing, fuming living creature is no home to people like Arthur. There are numerous shots of Arthur next to the piles of garbage, dumpsters and the urban filth. Poor people need the resources that the society provides to survive. In a classist society where Arthur’s social class is treated like trash, with the lethal cocktail of mental illness and a later revealed terrifying domestic secret, the only path Arthur sees is avoiding drowning in darkness by being born as a monster.
The reactions to Todd Philips’ movie aren’t that surprising, but some are very disappointing.
Those critics who suddenly discover the material to be “irresponsible” seem to be in need of controversy for their own sake (or clickbait’s sake). If we don’t see or do not want to admit, that the world we live in is pregnant with such possibilities, we’re admitting that something is fundamentally wrong with us.
If we cheer for good looking assassins in expensive suits and muscles holding guns, making bloodbaths into movie scenes, but we find the story of a mentally ill marginalized person with easy access to guns who finally becomes evil “irresponsible,” we are so morally bankrupt.
The media wants to tell us movies (in the past, music, video games and books) could provoke crime, but the reality we live in is much more horrifying. Joker, a subtly angry movie, is here to remind us who we have become as a society. Our society can, and often does, turn an innocent sign-spinning clown in Chaplin-esque clothing (who only needs a few more dollars and a smile) into a killer demon.
“Everything Must Go” the sign says.
