We Live in a Movie
Before I start talking about Joker I'm going to get a few things out of the way right off the bat
-This movie is not for everyone
-This movie is not perfect like some claim
-I'm not going to compare this film to the MCU or other super hero movies because it's night and day from what we are used to
A lot of reviewers these days are nothing more than political hacks trying desperately to see media through their political lens, whatever it may be and reinforce to their readers a worldview that likely doesn't exist in said media. This is happening a lot with the Joker...a lot. To prove this I am going to write this up as to how Arthur's struggles relate to the anarchist. The real kicker is that this movie isn't political-not even a little. Sure in the movie Thomas Wayne is running for mayor but they never tell you his politics or hear a speech from him. It's just a way of showing that he is a man of influence to some degree. But I'm getting way ahead of myself, let's start on level 1 with an empty inventory. There is no way to talk about this movie without spoiling it-it can't be done...or I can't do it anyway.
SYNOPSIS: If you want to skip the synopsis just head over to the picture of the joker in front of a burning car
We open with Arthur Fleck a man just making it in the grimy slums of Gotham. He is a clown for rent at kid's parties, old folks homes, hospitals etc. He lives with his ailing mother while dreaming of becoming a stand up comedian. He has a mental condition that makes him laugh uncontrollably completely at random. This guy already has the odds against him. He isn't overly optimistic or super confident in his abilities in fact I doubt that he fully understands exactly what his life is. He gets a gig bouncing a sign in front of a store and some run of the mill punks give him an ass kicking for fun. Later on a co worker gives Arthur a gun and tells him to protect himself. Arthur is aware of his condition and mental fragility when he says "I dont think I'm supposed to have a gun." but Arthur ends up needing that piece a few nights later where some drunken belligerent well dressed men harass him on the subway. The harassment turns into a beat down when Arthur tries to get away. He then blows them all away in a very satisfying moment of righteous self defense. However he only gets two out of three of the assailants initially and literally hunts down the third and final wounded member of the drunken pack. He pumps his back full of bullets and retreats to a public restroom to take in what has just happened. The press runs with a story about how a man in a clown mask murdered three well to do men minding their own business. The three men Arthur kills happen to work for Wayne Enterprises so the police and media have a genuine interest in finding the killer. The tension is growing now-the noose is tightening it's just a matter of time before Arthur has an unpleasant run in with Gotham PD...While the police are piecing this together Arthur tries his hand at doing some stand up but bombs out due to his sporadic laughing. He can't get through his set and the only joke he can tell absolutely sucks. Later on he opens a letter from his mother addressed to Thomas Wayne. The letter claims that Wayne is Arthur's father and that financial support would be appreciated-needed even. Arthur sneaks into an opera house and makes contact with Thomas. Wayne lays it all bare that Penny (arthur's mother) was a delusional crackpot who spent time in Arkham Asylum. He never had an affair with her and that Arthur is adopted. Essentially Thom has shattered Arthur's whole world and tenuous grasp on reality. All Arthur has is his mother and his memories of being with her and the stories she told him about his childhood. He can't let it go and hunts down his only lead to the mystery of his past. He goes to Arkham Asylum and snatches the records of his mother's stay from an orderly. In this moment Arthur's world more or less ends. He learns that what Wayne said is true. He is adopted his mother was institutionalized and not only that she played a part in his physical and emotional abuse as a child. He then visits the hospital where his mother is now staying and smothers her with a pillow. Meanwhile, a video recording of when he bombed on stage is aired on a late night show called Murray. This show is similar to Leno or Letterman with a host and a band with guests. The clip garners audience interest and the booking agent contacts Fleck asking if he would like to come on the show. He agrees and shortly after a couple co workers visit his apartment. He murders one of them by stabbing him with sewing sheers and lets the other go saying that he was the only guy who was nice to him at work. Arthur is literally being chased by Gotham detectives now through the streets while on his way to the Murray show. Around him are people wearing clown masks on their way to a public demonstration at city hall. The mob give the detectives an ass kicking while Arthur escapes to make his appearance on the Murray show, a show that he has fantasized about being on. When he sits across from the host he ends up admitting that he killed the three Wayne Enterprises employees much to the audience's disapproval. Things get heated and after a short monologue Arthur shoots Murray in the head on live television. After being arrested we see Gotham has descended into full on bedlam. The clown gang is running wild, doing whatever they feel like. Arthur admires what is going on as he's being driven to PD headquarters. Just then the cruiser is rammed by an ambulance that was stolen by the clown gang. They lift Arthur out of the squad car and encourage him to get back up on his feet. He does so to thunderous cheering. Later on we cut to a scene where he is in Arkham Asylum talking with a nurse or psychiatrist. He leaves the room leaving bloody footprints behind and that that's our movie.
Fuck, that took way longer than I expected but this movie is so full of nuance that you can't trim the fat. Every scene is meaningful, every line of dialogue serves a purpose. In a world of throw away cinema and "CGI go boom!" I greatly appreciate this aspect of the film. But let's get into the meat is this movie political? Is it pro antifa anti-antifa? Pro capitalism? Pro Socialism? etc. I'll admit that when I saw the clown mobs holding signs saying "RESIST" and other current culture slogans I got nervous. But it never really manifests beyond that and in a film like this-this is intentional.
Arthur Fleck when on the Murray show says that he is not political that the killings were not political in nature or motivated by class warfare like the press said. In essence Arthur is red pilling the plebs...stop viewing things through politics start listening to people-embrace the nuance of what they have experienced. Even the clown gang doesn't get it. They assume the killings were motivated by jealousy, hate, rage etc because that's what they feel. And boy howdy isn't that what we are seeing? Groups latch on to things they don't fully understand and use that bullshit they made up as an excuse for whatever means they employ to achieve their goals.
Arthur never not once ever mentions money. Even when he gets fired from his job as a party clown. He doesnt ask Wayne for any when he meets him he doesnt exhibit jealousy over Wayne Manor when he walks by-nothing. So this isn't an "eat the rich" kind of movie either. So what do we have here? Well...The underlying desire Arthur has is for companionship and a connection to a world that is unfeeling and unrelenting. He can't make sense of the humans around him, he is confused and scared at first. It's only after he shoots some attackers in self defense that he begins to feel more confident and capable in this world. He doesn't feel so helpless. His desire for a meaningful connection in this world is so strong that it manifests itself in a romantic relationship that he entirely imagines in his head. He imagines that he has a girlfriend who lives a few doors down. She is a real person but the relationship does not exist. He even imagines being a guest on the Murray show where the host showers him with praise and adoration. Arthur-like most of us wants to feel grounded in this world by way of friendship and love. I think he understands that this world is dire and scary and he thinks that by having friends it might be an easier life. I can't say he's wrong really if this is the case. And I can't say that I don't understand. On a personal level I think most of us want to feel like someone always has our back-that there is someone there for when shit hits the fan and I don't mean the big igloo. As I mentioned even his clown gang doesn't fully understand him-they just use him like everyone else in his life does. It's really kind of tragic.
Those who walk the anarchist's path may well know this feeling of loneliness and disconnect from this world. To have your loved ones distance themselves or reject you, laugh at you even. To not be able to connect with strangers because most wouldn't understand your worldview anyway. Isolated and lonely.
This movie is a bit of a departure from most modern movies as the camera never leaves the protagonist. I don't remember a scene where Arthur isn't present. This is also intentional, we are meant to go on this ride with him. There is no pause, no palate cleanser nothing, no pop culture quip to make you chuckle, no "this is gonna be the catch phrase", nothing that takes away from the slow erosion of his person. Again I understand this isn't symbolic of it but when you are keen to the world and the evils in it...and those evils are everywhere at all times there isn't a break from it-you live in this world. The difference between Arthur and most of us is that we can escape from it for a short time whether it be entertainment or a hobby or something-maybe you paint your minis or something-whatever. Speaking to it no amount of entertainment or distraction was going to save Arthur's sanity (whatever was left of it). So too do some of us become consumed by the terrifying truth of this world. We are defeated by it...because it IS maddening to live in a world controlled by maniacs, watching people you care about be duped over and over, knowing that you are more or less powerless to stop it. It's gut wrenching to be aware of what's happening to you but have to cope.
Arthur cannot cope. He doesn't have the ability. He wants a connection to the world that constantly rejects him and pulls the rug out from under his feet. But when does Arthur "awaken" to this? we have hints of it where he asks his social worker "is it getting crazier out there or is it just me?" he is becoming keen to the world around him on a more lucid level. Did we not feel this same thing when we encountered a truth that led us away from the worship of government? That what we just learned couldn't be the truth...we must know better. Then Arthur gets hit again with the revelation that his past is a lie and there isn't any turning back-the world he knew is gone. Do I really need to plug something in here? There are numerous revelations that change our lives with no turning back.
That feeling of knowing the world is fake yet having to live in it feels so weird at first-you again lose yourself in it. You come out a different person-there is no way you can't. In Arthur's case he came out a killer. Shooting people in self defense and perhaps getting caught up in the moment where you track down the other assailant is not the same thing as straight up cold blooded murder. He exacts revenge upon the only person left that damaged him so deeply-his mother. In my case I turned out a memer so...
Murray who is part of the establishment media brings Arthur on for scorn and to be chastised. Tells him that he cannot judge right and wrong for himself, that certain things are out of bounds for joking. This is probably the only part where yeah the messaging might well be intended for the anarchist. A couple years ago Facebook purged anarchist pages and the innumerable flaggings and bannings we've seen on any social media platform and Youtube literally deleting content they disapprove of-this scene is very loaded. Those privy to the information wars can take a lot out of this scene. There is a propaganda war going on-there is no doubt even some normies agree. So we have Murray-the establishment media wagging his finger in the face of a joe blow nobody who defended his own life, and just wanted someone to give a shit-or maybe even make them laugh even though his own life was miserable. How high and mighty to talked down to a man who has already been through it because you disapprove of what he says...Arthur again unleashes unhinged rage on Murray-an icon he once aspired to be like.
As he is being driven off to jail Fleck sees the clown gang...something he never intended to create running wild and destroying the city. You ever sit there and watch Antifa do some dumb shit in the streets and people think you're one of them? Isn't that annoying? I sympathized here for sure.
What an amazing film-even though it violates canon. Arthur is too old/Bruce is too young and whoever takes up the mantle of the joker is the one to kill his parents. They had a perfect set up for it. When Arthur was begging Wayne to give a shit and he instead gets punched it would have been an amazing time to enact the infamous broken pearl necklace scene when the Wayne family leaves. It would have added so much more weight to the meaning of the encounter-not just a random mugging. Then Fleck goes on to Murray Franklin and admits to shooting Thomas Wayne too...this would be more believable as to why the clowns are now rampaging in the streets. It was a perfect opportunity and it was a bit of a bummer that they didn't do it. This doesn't change that Bruce and Fleck have far too wide of an age gap though. So this movie cannot be linked to any other batman film. It must stand on its own or be the genesis for a DC universe. I don't think this is wise though. Trying to emulate such a heavy film for a series of episodes is impossible. This film is lightning in a bottle-you can't turn this out every two years. This film is not formulaic and watching the reactions of people so used to the standard hollywood format is amusing to me. In closing-everyone is going to see this thing differently and while I cannot guarantee that you will like it I do recommend checking out if not for any reason than it is very different than anything that has come out in the passed 10 years or so.
