Joker (2019)

[Olivia Bauer]

So Joker is getting released tomorrow. A movie that I have been mega hyped for. However I need to rant about irresponsible journalism for a bit here.

So, I guess the themes of the movies have something to do with incels. You don't know what incels are, good. Keep it that way.
The media has been reporting that there's reason to suspect that a mass shooting is going to happen at the premiere of Joker tomorrow.

Personally, I think the media is begging for it to happen. Mass shootings get them more clicks on their s**tty little websites.
If the media didn't make a bunch of articles about how Joker is "problematic" then this probably wouldn't even be happening.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point.

[Svengoolie 3]

I'm with you 110% here.  I think the media is praying for something to happen at the joker screening.

Also the feds issued some sort of alert about the possibility.

I think the real reason the feds and media are all against this movie is it involves essentially a violent uprising against the rich from what the early  reviews say.

[Archivist]

If something goes down, the media will blame the film, and not the pre-film priming the media themselves have created. Guaranteed.

[Olivia Bauer]

I saw the movie yesterday and I absolutely adored it. It's my favorite film of 2019 so far.
Through the entire movie I had a knot in my chest. I was really tense and uncomfortable every seconds I was watching it.
I had felt this in a movie before, a long time ago, and I immediately remembered where exactly I felt this before.
It was eleven years ago, when I saw The Dark Knight.

I could hardly breathe during the Joker scenes in Dark Knight. It was really THAT tense. Now someone took
those scenes and made them the entire movie. I was always on edge, waiting for the protagonist to kill someone
and the pay off was always frightfully violent.
And of course, Joaquin Phoenix's performance was absolutely phenomenal. I was able to get very immersed and forget that
I'm looking at an actor. I never saw Joaquin Phoenix, I only ever saw Arthur Fleck.

9/10

As for the drama surrounding the movie, I have no f**king clue how that happened. People admonished the film
for possibly inspiring incels to commit acts of violence. As I watched the movie I kept an eye out for anything
that was remotely relevant to incel ideology. There was one small aspect to the movie that was even vaguely incel related.

---
SPOILERS
---

So, early in the movie Arthur meets his neighbor in an elevator and he falls in love with her. In later scenes we see them going on
dates together. She gives him a lot of emotional support throughout the film. However after a particularly nasty day he goes into her
apartment and sits on her couch. She is shocked to see him, informing Arthur that he was in the wrong apartment. She is visibly frightened
by this. It is at this point that the audience can piece together that the two were never dating and Arthur's demented mind had convinced him
that they were.

You could argue this is incel related, but honestly, that's a stretch that Mr. Fantastic wouldn't be able to make. At no point during the movie
did Joker state that his madness and violent tendencies had anything to do with women. In fact, over the course of the movie he kills six people
and only one of them was a woman. But the one woman was his mother, who he found out had lied to him about his father. Her gender didn't really
factor in to why he killed her. Mommy issues do not instantly equal misogyny.

---
SPOILERS OVER
---


Y'know, you'll always find detractors of any movie. You can find people that believe that Citizen Kane is trash. Maybe they believe that for good
reasons, or maybe they really are just contrarians. Personally, I try to avoid accusing people of contrarianism since literally everyone on the planet
has at least one contentious opinion (Ex: I think Kung-Fu Panda is a bad movie). I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that have good reason
to dislike Joker. However I feel like most of the people that criticize the movie publicly have ulterior motives.

I've passed by a couple reviews that simply say "Joker Sucks" as I looked at the news feed on my phone. I did not click on them because they were blatantly
clickbait. They expect me to get angry at the title and click on it to leave a nasty message or some s**t. Angry clicks are an easy way to generate revenue.
If the article was just called "Joker Review" then I'd be less suspicious of it to be honest.

Perhaps I'm being unfair, but given how many articles today are clickbait I have gotten into the mindset of instantly distrusting them.
If I see an article called "Joker Sucks" and it's from Kotaku then I instantly know it's clickbait, because that specific site has absolutely no ethics or integrity
as far as journalism is concerned.

I'm telling you right now, if none of this media bulls**t happened the Metascore of Joker would be way higher. But because the film is controversial it gives people
an easy way to make money by jumping on the forced controversy bandwagon.

[Archivist]

For someone who hasn't seen this movie and isn't that inclined to do so, can anyone explain why this movie was deemed controversial? Was it because the media wanted negative hype, and then everyone jumped on the boogeyman of the month, which happens to be incels?

[Alex]

Part of me wonders if the marketing companies behind these movies have a hand in making them seem controversial to drum up business when people go to see what all the fuss is about.

[Rev. Powell]

Part of me wonders if the marketing companies behind these movies have a hand in making them seem controversial to drum up business when people go to see what all the fuss is about.

Even if they don't deliberately generate it, the studios love the controversy.

[Svengoolie 3]

https://babylonbee.com/news/media-horrified-by-lack-of-violence-at-joker-screenings?fbclid=IwAR37pu2h8pNqVbHZYQRUKq9-jDFmDPgoAqHdaldRizw1akT4uddivnrVPn4

[Svengoolie 3]

If people do commit violence over the joker movie or are convinced to commit violence against someone who may or may not have abused them,  it won't   happen in the theater, they'll target and go after people  they believe,  rightly  or wrongly,  have hurt them and deserve it.

[BoyScoutKevin]

It is not something I have seen, nor do I have any interest in ever seeing it, but, having read a summary of the plot, I can understand why it is controversial. What is less understandable is why, while most of the critical reviews have been positive, there have been a number of critics that have given it a thumbs down and not because of the controversy surrounding it. It is a film that may go down as being unique in Oscar history, and somebody correct me, if I am wrong, this may be the only film where 2 different actors playing the same character in 2 different films, won Oscars for playing that character.

[Rev. Powell]

Written by a member of my critic's group and sort of relevant to some of this discussion:

http://livinglifefearless.co/2019/opinions/contrary-to-popular-belief-film-critics-are-not-conspiring-against-joker/

[Gabriel Knight]

The marketing machine is working extra hours with this thing, it's amazing. I wonder if someone will give a damn about it next year.

[Svengoolie 3]

Maybe a better question than "is the joker any good" is "Why do we care what critics say anyway? "

[Rev. Powell]

Maybe a better question than "is the joker any good" is "Why do we care what critics say anyway? "

Because we help steer you towards movies you might enjoy and away from movies you might hate? I mean, otherwise you'd be mostly picking movies at random, or going by advertising.

[Svengoolie 3]

Maybe a better question than "is the joker any good" is "Why do we care what critics say anyway? "

Because we help steer you towards movies you might enjoy and away from movies you might hate? I mean, otherwise you'd be mostly picking movies at random, or going by advertising.

In tidayscs world, rev, yoiu could look at what people are saying about itaftetr seeing it.