Joker (2019)

[Fountain City Blues]

Anti-Trump stuff in TV is so non shocking anymore (lazy, really) that I barely noticed it or cared because the acting was so good. Would have probably been a little better and more serious without the strong stereotypes, but that stuff felt like background noise to Alfred and his own issues.

Spoiler: Response

It being anti-Trump is moreso a function of Trump being a greedy oligarch, bonus points for also being a billionaire like Thomas Wayne. You could just as easily say Boris Johnson or some random CCP party leader. Or some failson or daughter in Chilean politics. A French technocrat like Macron could also be a Thomas Wayne.

It's quite a bit bigger than Trump. The movie bangs you over the head with a dilapidated urban center with trash quite literally piling up on the street, and social services (which were already not especially effective in many cases, but that's another problem) being cut. There's a reason you see dudes right now putting joker makeup on their faces in protests like Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, France, Bolivia, Ecuador, amongst other countries and places. The idea that it's white male rage or incel resentment is ironic as it suspiciously sounds like just a bunch of Murrays pissing down their leg there was an actual movie saying they're trash and deserve the very worst for how their worldview has shaped society here and abroad, quite frankly. Agree with it or not.

 

[Fountain City Blues]

A lot of the weirder narratives about this movie come from people who have no concept of class or class conflict whatsoever.

 

[Orlando Eagles]

Watched it last night, this was excellent. Dark and bleak, but it was more like a "Real movie" than these comic books things usually are. It definitely had that "Taxi Driver" feel with the alienated anti-hero.

Just watched it tonight with the missus. We both enjoyed it and agreed it’s nice that it was not typical, campy comic book turned to movie.

Phoenix was utterly fantastic. I didn’t fully get the Oscar buzz before tonight and though Leo stood a good shot for OUATIH....but no, he shouldn’t stand a chance.

I really liked some of the flourishes in explaining how the Joker became the Joker and how he ties into the Wayne’s. Bleak and dark, but compelling.

And this certainly feels like better story telling than “I fell in a vat of acid that scared my face and drove me mad”.

 

[Orlando Eagles]

A lot of the weirder narratives about this movie come from people who have no concept of class or class conflict whatsoever.

I heard a lot about how this movie was a political statement. And I agree with that in the respect of class conflict.

But I also heard a lot of how this was a statement of Trump, and I’m just not seeing that. Sure, the Thomas Wayne comparisons. But I really buy that as much as I buy any of Trumps boys being Batman. Lol

 

[Fountain City Blues]

I heard a lot about how this movie was a political statement. And I agree with that in the respect of class conflict.

But I also heard a lot of how this was a statement of Trump, and I’m just not seeing that. Sure, the Thomas Wayne comparisons. But I really buy that as much as I buy any of Trumps boys being Batman. Lol

Spoiler: Response

I tend to agree that the Trump comparisons break down in regards to Thomas Wayne at a certain level. It's more of an amorphous greedy asshole/oligarch which Trump may or may not be included in at a given moment. Especially in a franchise like Batman where the protagonist is literally a billionaire cop in a bat costume, that juxtaposition is kind of corny. So, I kind of like they just made Thomas a generic rich asshole in politics the best they could without being overly hamfisted about it.

I also appreciate they made Joker quite separate morally from the movement going on in the background, even if that background is kind of essential to understanding the plot. Which is kind of ironic given most people don't have that frame of reference.