JOKER – It’s not a movie, it’s a bloody manifesto! 5 stars

ByMartyn Bradbury

WARNING: SPOILERS

With his film, Joker, Director Todd Phillips has been able to capture the zeitgeist of the culture war every bit as terrifying as The Handmaid’s Tale. That he has managed to start a twitter war with the Clown Prince of Middle Class Woke, Taika Waititi, is proof positive of that.

The real danger of the cultural landscape of Identity Politics is when white men start seeing themselves as an identity.

Joker isn’t a movie, it’s a bloody manifesto.

Any white males watching this movie alone in a cinema quietly weeping or hysterically laughing should be a red flag.

The cultural gatekeepers of Identity Politics online, Slate, The Guardian and the New York Times have quickly attacked the film because any art that justifies white male rage must be delegitimised as quickly as possible.

I’m personally surprised that Action Station hasn’t launched a petition demanding a boycott of the film.

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is a tour de force performance into how monsters are made not born.

The abuse his character suffers, the pain of his upbringing, the depression and mental illness, the betrayal of his mother to feed a violent misogyny, all set against a backdrop of cruel indifference by a corrupt capitalism, combines to make a terrifying piece of cinema that is as bitter as it is addictive.

Phoenix’s transformation into a violent clown of the absurd is mesmerising and utterly compelling. His dance down the stairs is the march of the nietzschean übermensch descending into madness.

The populist riots that explode against the elites adds real subversive authenticity that extends well beyond the screen

In his final joke, just before he blows the head off Robert De Niro’s character live on air, he asks, ‘What do you get when you mix a damaged child with a society that doesn’t care?”

“You get what you fucking deserve”.

The Anti-Defamation League must be milli-seconds away from adding “You get what you fucking deserve” alongside the Ok sign and bowl haircuts as hate crime symbols.

It is a piece of film that marks an inflection point in cultural identity politics and all those lonely, bitter, angry, damaged white boys warping into adult Jokers finally have their anti-hero to sacrifice to.

One simply doesn’t know whether to weep or laugh hysterically.

Terrifying art imitating a horrific life.

5 stars

 

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8 Comments

  1. Okay no spoilers. I think part of genius of 2019’s Joker comes from a number of stories where Batman fights frantically to keep the Joker alive. For example when Jason Todd came back and decided to Murder Joker back (which is fair, if you kill someone and they come back wanting to kill you, I’m of a mind to let it happen) Batman went all out to stop it. It’s not the only example.

  2. It’s a little like Bridges National crackdown policies on gang numbers spiking. Well hello! What did you and your mate Donkey and your useless immigration minister do when you had the chance to stop an increase of gangs coming from Australia? NOTHING. Guess what Simon… YOU created this, so…

    “You get what you fucking deserve”.

    Why are you playing the victim?

  3. This film is basically the Judas Priest of 2019. The Tipper Gores of the world are howling in outrage over a fucking movie in much the same way they howled in outrage over “Satanic lyrics” in heavy metal during the ’80s. And then you had Dungeons & Dragons leading innocent youth to the occult. And Grand Theft Auto responsible for car-jackings. And Marilyn Manson who was apparently the sole cause of the Columbine school shooting. And so the cycle of righteous indignation continues unabated. I understand the need to apportion blame, but I wish people weren’t so fucking simple-minded.

    Crazy people do crazy things, and the actions of one unhinged lunatic is never indicative of society’s headlong plunge into an abyss of degeneration and depravity. People seem painfully and continuously unable to grasp this simple truth.

    I haven’t seen the film yet, but it looks amazing.

    1. See that’s the problem with Batman. A lot of people make contrasts with Batemans fighting skills and batman does have peak human abilities but that isn’t Batemans superpower. Batemans super power is being the best detective ever, and in contrast the joker is the best criminal ever.

      The Joker is so well written, it has so much depth, and so much backstory. Everything is subtle. Iv heard people liken Joker to Rebort De Niros Taxi directed by Martin Scorsese an accepted genius level director and actor themselves. Iv heard Joke being likened to ANTIFA, left wing politics, inequality. Journalists, bloggers and commentators are equally opinionated in their critisms or enjoyment they got out of the film. But that is the genius of Todd Phillips the Director of Joker. Why wouldn’t you pull ideas from these greats to weave a master piece while doing justice to the comics, film, lore and canon.

      Everything is so subtle in there explanations when ever the Joker does something it’s like you have an epiphany as if you understand from the Jokers reaction to being stimulated and in that moment you’ve learnt bomb making because the Joker needed those skills for the plot to survive. Only we didn’t have to brake each scene down into it’s deeper meanings to satisfy every desire in a 3 part woke trilogy featuring Virginias and gays. Instead Todd Phillips was able to explain the complexity in very subtle and sucsient ways.

      Do I think Joker should be included in the American National Museum along side the rest of Americas national treasuries I mean certainly I think there’s a case for it. It’s that good. Joker is enterly it’s own masterpiece which just goes to show how genius Joaquín Phoenix was to be able to get that skinny, pull off the laugh and his timing was perfect. It wasn’t pitch perfect because Joaquín was able to put a lot of feeling into it while playing off key and performing like everyone agrees that that is exactly the way things should be. You could choose any actor today and they just wouldn’t have got stuck into it the way Joaquín did.

    1. Been that way for awhile.

      I wouldn’t worry though. Large chunks of the population are dumbed down through chemicals in their scripts, water and food. I hope they manage to turn things around 🙁

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