Joker (Todd Phillips, October 4, 2019) Movie • Page 44

Saw this earlier in a theater that had about 6 people in it. One was clapping every time the joker killed someone.

I enjoyed the movie but also found it pretty disturbing

 

There’s always one.

 

Also had a clapper during the outcome of the Wall Street douche subway scene. Added to the disturbing nature of the scene.

 

The movie sounds like it's so toothless and benign and doesn't say anything, but if people are rooting for the protagonist, who's pretty obviously the bad guy...

 

You haven’t seen it then? I don’t understand the logic behind spending so much time linking and saying negative things about it if you haven’t seen it and formed a credible opinion for yourself. It’s a disturbing film. Toothless and benign though? I personally wouldn’t agree, but you seem pretty set on not giving it a chance before you’ve even sat down to watch it for yourself.

 

I don’t think he’s obviously the bad guy because the movie doesn’t moralize anything. It just presents things happening and since it doesn’t moralize (even in the subtle, immersive way Scorsese does, where the film’s perspective is Travis Bickle’s or Jordan Belfort’s but it’s clear how horrible they are), people look at a sympathetic situation (the Wall Street bros harass a woman and a mentally ill man) it’s present d as just. But then it doesn’t inform the politics of the Joker character. It’s so dumb.

also people like violence in movies and often react to it vocally, I think the press is running with that for this movie because of the reputation.

this movie is also absolutely toothless and benign. It has all the thematic weight and resonance of Wedding Crashers.

 

I'd agree that the movie doesn't confront its themes or take any strong stances directly, but I wouldn't say it leaves the question of whether or not Joker is bad all that ambiguous.

The movie cues up ominous villain music to accompany Fleck in a lot of scenes. His murders aren't embellished or glorified in any way, and are in fact pretty blunt and disturbing. Just the way he's shot too. Like... this is clearly the bad guy

 

What did I say about feeling invalidated in here? I feel like I'm talking in circles.

 

What do you mean by invalidated?

 

You’re allowed to have an opinion. Sorry if it came across otherwise. I just think people should maybe watch it before going completely gung-ho ‘this is BAD’ is all.

 

To be concerned is completely reasonable. Nobody said otherwise.

 

If I think a movie looks garbage or is completely not for me, I'm not going to spend money or time to see it just to prove to someone else it is in fact not for me. People can probably read through this thread or reviews and get some idea if they'll like it or not.

This seems to be a polarizing movie, so I guess it's a little more difficult in this case.

 

Apparently this is too far back.

 

Really don’t get your aim here. You’ve said you were concerned. Makes sense. You’ve linked all those articles before. Okay. Message received. Why are you still here trying to convince everyone this is bad, especially when you haven’t seen it and apparently have no intention of seeing it? This film has been out a while now.

I too was concerned about this film, but I went and saw it and came to the conclusion that while the violence was indeed brutal, and the film wasn’t incredible, that I enjoyed the experience and insight into an otherwise vague character of that universe. There are other things to take from this film than its violence, which is something you won’t glean from gathering up every bit of bad press you can find.

 

I was responding to @Nathan. Chill.

 

Outside of the problematic personal/professional behaviors of Phoenix, De Niro, and Phillips, I think there is an amount of concern that is reasonable, I have friends who attend less public movies/concerts because they are less comfortable in crowds in the wake of gun violence. That's fair, I wouldn't invalidate that.

Where I would offer a counter and think there has absolutely been some overblown media handwringing is the idea that the content of a movie would cause a violent incident. It's a relative to the right wing, "rap/rock music and violent video games cause violence" argument. No single piece of art is going to make someone act violently in a vacuum. There were individuals who read Catcher in the Rye and saw Taxi Driver and committed acts of violence, those pieces of media are down at the bottom of the list of where I'd place my priorities for why those acts of violence happened/what to be concerned about in their wake. Especially after seeing this movie. It has no more right wing, incel, alt-right politics than it does leftist, liberal politics. That some writer came out of a viewing of this movie and worried that someone who identified as an incel or as a part of the alt-right would be inspired to commit violence because of this movie is a hard dot to connect if you actually consider what played out on the screen. If the concern was that this movie itself would inspire a politically motivated violent incident, I think that ignores what we know of the psychologies of those who commit those crimes and what place media has in those crimes.

 

Hyperbole

 

The 'Joker' Ending Mansplained

 

okay if it made the rapist this mad maybe this movie is alright

 

I don’t have an opinion on this film what what a fucking conceited wanker do you have to be to not understand the concept of the structure of universe you’re working in

it’s like if I worked under Disney and got mad someone from ESPN got a promotion

 

“How much of a wanker do you have to be?” is a question where Jared Leto could literally be the standard bearer.

 

There's people out there that think Jared was good as the Joker and those people baffle me. Not only is he a terrible person, he's also an awful actor