Ever since the first trailer dropped, Joker has been one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2019. Todd Philips’s film markets itself as a deeply disturbing character study of one of the most famous villains of all time. However, Joker’s themes hit home for many in America and have made this blockbuster a very hot topic among critics and audiences alike. 

     The film recounts the origin story of Arthur Fleck, later known as the Joker. Arthur’s life is filled with failure after failure and his severe mental illness goes ignored, untreated, and unchecked. Left to fend for himself in a society that has failed him, Arthur Fleck ceases to be, replaced by his Joker persona as the movie progresses; symbolizing his loss of self and deteriorating mental state. 

Photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly
Joker, Terrifyingly Poignant Character Study or Justification of Violence

Critics were openly disgusted by the empathetic portrait that Philips painted of Fleck and some went as far as to call it a poorly made rip-off of the 1976 cult classic, Taxi Driver. Yet, with all this negative attention, Joker has many fans. In the eyes of many, the very things that it was criticized for are actually its greatest strengths. Far from glorifying mass shootings, Todd Philips’s film tells a cautionary tale of what happens to those who silently slip through the cracks of the system.

     In a decade rife with isolation and random crime, some fear that Joker romanticizes one of the most common and terrifying types of violence. 

  All this said Joker is a movie you’re going to want to see, if not for the film itself, then to see what all the controversy is about. 

By: Margaux Yannacci’22