Joker (2019) is set around a mentally-ill person, Arthur Fleck. He is, in fact, the Joker. Life doesn't seem to care for Arthur: he gets jumped by street thugs every now and then, he is poor and unprivileged, has a mental illness that makes him laugh at inappropriate times and moments, still lives with his mother. Although, Arthur tries to be a comedian and make people smile, no one laughs at his jokes (sometimes relatable). What doesn't help is the fact that the movie is set in the 1980s in the US, when the growth of crime rates was just incredible. Gotham, the city Arthur lives in, has a corrupt person in charge. As you can probably see, these multiple factors didn't help Arthur's mental illness. We, as people on the other side of the screen, the viewers, realize and start to understand why Joker is the way he is. The movie's goal isn't to show what he has done and emphasize it many times. During Arthur's crime scenes, there weren't a lot of cinematic effects and evil makeup taking place. The film's goal is different - to show why a mentally-ill, depressed, sad person develops a second persona of cruel Joker. The city, life, other people couldn't care less about Arthur. This carelessness led to the creation of a monster that would wreck the city.
I am not defending Joker. I really don't approve of his behaviours and I pity his victims, though they were also jerks. But it is always like this in life: "Beat or get beaten". The line of right and wrong is really blurry in "Joker".
While browsing YouTube and listening to what others have to say about Joker, I came across a movie theory. Here is the main idea. Arthur's laughing, awkward movements and the sudden dramatic changes to his personality all point to him having schizophrenia. This mental illness is particularly famous because the victims are known to perceive the reality like they want. What I'm trying to say is that perhaps, just perhaps, not everything that happened on the screen actually happened in their reality, in their world.
Joker (2019) is not based on any comic, it is an original movie that only took the idea of the character from the comics and tries to explain why Joker is the way he is. The movie even gives Joker a new, human name: Arthur Fleck. He was played by Joaquin Phoenix, and the performance was pretty brilliant. It made everyone else's performances seem so bleak. I was particularly amazed at how he could laugh like a crazy angry man, and then act more or less normal literally the next second. How does he do that?
The producer and writer was Todd Phillips, the film cast included Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, like I previously mentioned; Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin, who is a pretty famous person both in real life and in the movie; Zazie Beats, Fleck's love; and Frances Conroy, who played Penny Fleck, the abusive mother of Joker.
The movie attempts to make the Joker's actions seem right. I could understand, reality can be harsh. It can and should be difficult to realize that nobody really cares about you on the level you care about yourself.
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