If we don't laugh, we'll cry.

I’ll get straight to it-this film feels a tad weird and honestly, I’m not sure whether the audience is supposed to feel weird or not. Is this film about class? Police brutality? Mental illness? Gun control? Capitalism? All of the above or none of it? Joker has Its hands in a lot of pies and really needed to pick a lane and stay in it. In short it lacked direction. In the longstanding tradition of mainstream superhero flicks the films musical score and cinematography are meh at best but like his name sake Phoenix rises above it all, I really just wanted to see him do his thing. The references to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy feel a bit like a distraction, Hey Todd Phillips! Just because we love those films doesn’t mean we’ll automatically love this one!

Like every review this is the paragraph where I tell you that Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in his role, and god dammit he totally is. Literally no one could have played this part apart from him. But why is everyone acting like they’ve never seen this man act before? We been done knew that Phoenix kills every role he’s ever played, period. Do yourself a favour and watch The Master, You Were Never Really here (Stan Lynne Ramsay) Her and Walk the Line. The plot line of Arthur believing he is Bruce Wayne’s half-brother? Love that. I haven’t seen it used before in the onscreen canon and it didn’t come off as cheesy nor unbelievable. But I was glad when it turned out to be untrue, it was a fun little side quest that I thoroughly enjoyed. The part where we actually see Mr and Mrs Wayne get killed in that dark alley In front of their son giving him a reason to become Batman? It literally left the audience literally cheering. It was just the right amount of fan service that I can tolerate.

Now, does this film alienate people with mental illnesses? I’m not sure tbh. I take medication and attend therapy weekly and keep a report of my thoughts and feeling for a therapist, not unlike Arthur. So, do I feel belittled and ridiculed by this film? Honestly no, I felt good, maybe even a bit liberated. I liked being able to not only relate to Arthur but to laugh at his pain as people with mental illnesses laugh at our own pain sometimes.

I will be real with you all, I work in a mainstream cinema and let me tell ya, Warner Bros are taking the whole Joker threat extremely seriously. We were sent emails briefing us on who can and cannot enter the screen (don’t bring fake weapons and masks to a cinema???? Obviously????). I guess the preparations for a potential terror attack was more extreme across America because of their gun laws but even over here in the UK we were trained for bomb threats as well as knife and weapon attacks. But can we all agree that when a film gets attention for being ‘too violent’ or ‘a bad influence’ it gets us even more excited to see it? And If it gets banned, that’s essentially like striking gold in my book, where do I buy my ticket? Many mainstream news outlets where concerned that Joker screenings would become targets of an incel attack like the 2014 Isle Vista attack or the 2018 Toronto van attack. Or even that after watching Joker people would be inspired by the acts of violence onscreen and want to commit crimes of their own. But c’mon everyone, we’ve all watched Bowling for Columbine. The consumption of violent media does not make people violent, anyone with a single brain cell will tell you that.

I came out of Joker feeling Satisfied and I think that’s the most I could ask of it, I’m not into comic books but I am also a person living on planet earth so obviously I am aware of the Jokers story. But It appears that super fans, first time watchers and critics alike are split on what to think. This critic is certainly split on what to think. But I believe at the most it opens up a conversation to discuss the issues raised in the film, it also raises a discussion into whether Joaquin Phoenix is hot or not, the answer is hot you tasteless ingrates.