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Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Joker (2019)

There is a lot to say about this movie, but how it got nominated for the most categories, and how the director beat out Greta Gerwig for the nomination is a mystery to me.
This is both the origin story for the Joker as well as for Batman, and it is not a pretty picture.  At worst it emphasizes all the basest human qualities, and glorifies them.  It seems quite contemporary in both its scope and content.  We are living in the time of Gotham, and there are no checks and balances what so ever.  It is a tragedy.
On the other hand, it depicts mental illness in a horrific light that it does not deserve.  The fallacy that people with mental illness are violent is unfair and untrue.  What is true is that the victims of domestic violence do go on to struggle with violence themselves.  A book on the subject, No Visible Bruises, avers that most mass shootings have an origin in domestic violence, and some start by killing a family member, and then go on to kill others. So not a great message there.
Finally, Joaquin Phoenix plays crazy like no one else.  He is entirely believable as the antihero who starts off being a victim and then emerges as a killer who inspires others to follow his example.  There is no bottom to his rage and it rolls off him in every scene.

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