Send in the Clown?

I haven't blogged in a long time, but I wanted to jot down some thoughts I had about the movie Joker. There will be spoilers.

For me, there are two potential options when evaluating the film, neither of which speak well of it.

Either:

1) Joker is a shallow film with delusions of grandeur that ultimately doesn't have anything new or interesting to say about the world.

or

2) Joker does something to say about the world, but the things it says are problematic.

There are those who say the film is about mental illness. But if that's the case, then what it has to say is that mentally ill people are ultimately a danger to society. Not great.

There are those who say it's about classism. But the people leading the revolution and trying to remake the system anoint a false messiah who doesn't actually share their views and who murders people for personal vengeance rather than out of righteous indignation or to accomplish a larger goal. That's not exactly a positive portrayal of the poor and downtrodden.

There are those who say it's about living in a society and treating others with respect and kindness. But the people who Arthur lashes out at aren't just the ones who break the social contract. The Wall Street bros are legitimate bullies, but his mother is clearly suffering from her own mental illness and Murray, while a bit of a jerk, is just a guy hosting a talk show and trying to make people laugh. He's mean-spirited, but hardly an example of the worst of society. Then there's poor Sophie and her daughter who seem perfectly nice and kind and polite and maybe(?) get murdered for it. It's a muddled mess.

That's not even mentioning the fact that "white guy goes crazy and kills people" is an idea that's been explored quite frequently in cinema. It's hard to argue that the movie is an important film about mental illness when it's telling the same story that's been told repeatedly and often better.

At any rate, I enjoyed the film. But all the attempts to call it a masterpiece and ascribe greater meaning than is ultimately there are misguided in my opinion. There are a lot of people who are grading it on a curve because it's a comic book film and because they're used to seeing summer blockbusters and nothing else. Which is fine. By all means, like what you like. But don't lash out at the film's detractors and act like they're missing some hidden depth that only the movie's fans really get. That's simply not the case.