Joker: an amazing movie... by accident

By: Mark Slovik (08/03/2020)

DC movies. (2019)

“The movie makes it look like he’s starting a revolution, where the rich are taken down, the poor get everything they need and deserve, and the sad guys who can’t get a date become heroes.” Time.

“The movie lionizes and glamorizes Arthur even as it shakes its head, faux-sorrowfully, over his violent behavior.” Time.

“In real life, we’re surrounded by Arthur Flecks”. The Washington Examiner.

“For (Joker) it is essentially a depiction of what happens when white supremacy is left unchecked.” The New York Times.

“Joker has quite a lot to say about society's current obsession with media and content consumption” Comicbook.

“it leaves the vulnerable to suffer without the resources they need, and the horrific consequences for the rest of society that can result.” The Guardian.

“Joker is a deeply moral movie about the power of kindness” NME.

“The film is a critique not only of a social mindset, but, by exploring the motivations of the extremely wealthy Thomas Wayne, of the overall social class system” Daily Nebraskan.

“It’s about breaking all the rules” Tasha Robinson.

“Joker is a mirror of American reality” Michael Moore.

Without a doubt, this movie, directed by Todd Phillips and produced by DC has something special: it completely renovates the comic character of the Joker into this psychedelic, internal, reflective tale, that really makes us feel, I'm not sure what, but something.

First the easy parts:

-The acting by Joaquin Phoenix is simply amazing, it's a really compelling act, that really makes you understand the character completely and feel its pain. I was really amazed with how his laugh actually hurt me. In general the acting gives the movie a great strength and a particular voice that wouldn't be achieved otherwise.

-Secondly, the cinematography. The looks of the movie achieved by Phillips and Lawrence Sher, the photography director, are just beautiful, and there are some shots that make you feel very uncomfortable and accomplish their goals perfectly. There's a lot of movement and storytelling going on just in the cinematography itself.

-Thirdly, but not less important, actually pretty important, is the score, written by Hildur Guðnadóttir is simply the most amazing thing I've ever heard. The power of it is mesmerizing, and the way it makes you feel is priceless. How she uses the cello in such a strong way is really captivating, and, in my opinion, without that amazing score, the movie wouldn't be nearly as good as it ended up being.

The difficult part of this movie to analyze is none other than the story itself, the core of it. In my personal beliefs, the story, and what it transmits, are the two most important factors of a movie, and the entire purpose of it lies there. So if there is something wrong with the story, the entire movie could be completely purposeless.

The problem I had with this movie was that I couldn't really find a message. I heard everywhere that Joker was amazing because of how it portrayed our society and how it showed us the cold truth that we live in, but actually, is you look up on the internet (which I did), seeing the quotes at the beginning of this article, you’ll see that there are a million of different interpretations of the movie, some of which either contradict each other or simply don't make absolute sense.

The grand issue of Joker, that it tried to portray itself as a very smart movie packed with meaning, but as it turns out, it's just a movie about a mentally ill that starts committing murders because of "self-defense". The entire speech he gives at the Murray Franklin show comes out of nowhere trying to justify his actions, but there is no background to it, he is just hurt by the idea that no one finds him funny.

As the title of this review says, this is a great movie by accident, so, what exactly is that accident? That accident is called post-truth, the philosophical concept that states reality is subjective, and facts don't matter, only feelings, meaning that everyone just sees what they want in every situation, and that is a modern problem that nowadays the society suffers from, and that is perfectly seen in how people reacted to the movie, seeing whatever each one wanted to see, depending on what are their interests and what are the things that matter to them. That, exactly that right there, is why I think joker is a great movie, because of the effect it caused to society, because of how everyone turned mad after seeing it and started seeing what they wanted and what they needed to see.

Joker, or more specifically, Joker's effect on society, really portrays a severe problem of society: how fact don't matter anymore and how the objective truth is gone; how everyone sees what they want in every situation; how every one of us stopped caring about what's actually happening and started "believing" in themselves and in their way of seeing life; and how we don't even realize about it.

Today society's problem is simply a problem of beliefs, a problem of post-truth.