Most of my loyal Dating by Wegs’s readers have been clamoring for more dating content. I am getting closer to getting back on the dating scene. Honestly, there was a lot of pressure to post weekly stories from my dating life. As my dating momentum slowed to a crawl, it was just easier to cut it from my weekly posts. However, I did have a great summer with a bevy of activities. I was able to enjoy several cool bars, festivals, and the like with friends and people of dating interest.
So, I promise to still post some Dating by Wegs articles soon. However, in the interim, I thought it would be fun to post something on Fridays that is non-sports. I’ll attempt to review local venues – restaurants, bars/clubs, movies and plays. Why not?
The Joker – Directed by Todd Phillips
So, I start these posts with a movie that I, for one, was very interested in seeing. I should put some biases out there right away, that I am a complete super hero nerd. I’ve seen virtually every super hero movie ever made over the past 30 years. Like most kids of my generation (maybe more men than women but who knows), I grew up on Saturday morning and after school cartoons, between the Super Friends, Thundar the Barbarian, He-Man, Thundercats, Batman and all of the other cartoons filtered through my brain, I thought I was a super hero myself at one time or another.
The Joker is not a Super Hero Movie!! Yes, technically, The Joker is supposed to fall somewhere in the DC Universe. In fact, I want the DC Universe to somehow get organized to come close to Marvel, but we all know it has not. Wonder Woman was excellent. Aquaman was intriguing. However, the gap between the Chris Nolan Batman movies to the DC Universe has widened over time.
I write all that because going into seeing The Joker, I, along with a lot of comic book/super hero fans, was yearning for a quality DC origin story to link into the DC Universe. Well, The Joker is a lot more than that.
The Joker begins and ends with Joaquin Phoenix and that maniacal laugh. Arthur Fleck, a pathetic young man with a condition that includes laughing uncontrollably when he is anxious, works for a clown agency while he aspires to be a stand up comic. He lives with his ill mother in a rough apartment in the bowels of a garbage and rat infested Gotham City. He fantasizes about his beautiful neighbor (played by Zazie Beetz) and being on the Murray Franklin Show (played by Robert De Niro). Arthur has more issues than that laughter, as he slips into his delusional life often.
The story line digs deep into the utter sadness of Arthur’s life, and how Gotham itself continues to destroy his efforts to “spread happiness.” After yet another crushing experience and with the help of a firearm, Arthur’s arc changes dramatically. As he slowly discovers both his real past and who he is, Arthur flowers into the character we know as The Joker.
Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was incredible. Phoenix is a brilliant actor, no doubt, but I have had the idea that he is truly insane in real life. Well, in his portrayal of The Joker, he went all in. Phoenix’s body is as thin as I’ve ever seen it. The laughing condition alone made the character to me – it was so visceral and painful. His performance will make you feel uncomfortable. You will hurt for him and fear him at the same time.
I was skeptical about Todd Phillips (Old School and The Hangover) as the director of such a piece. Well, I was wrong. The world Phillips has created is not the comic book version of Gotham we have seen with Adam West and his tights in the 60s, Burton’s version in the 90s or even Nolan’s city a decade ago. This Gotham is a gritty, unforgiving, realistic place that crushes the souls of the underclass. The violence is very graphic and realistic to the point that I felt terrible for the couple who brought their 8 year old boy to see this movie last night. Make no mistake, The Joker is not a movie for children at all. With that, I give Philips credit for himself going all in re-imagining a tale that could make Gotham and The Joker a realistic portrayal of psychopathic behavior in context.
I’ve heard that many critics have said The Joker could potentially encourage violence or even empower anti-establishment behavior. Any movie has that ability, doesn’t it? I mean did they say the same when Goodfellas came out? Did Scarface empower people to kill in Miami in the 80s? I tend to take a movie at face value. The creation of a movie world where the poor are constantly beat up, abused, and incarcerated may be a reflection of how our world is. Yet, The Joker, as an anti-hero story, puts the audience in a position to choose or at least feel how the criminalization of the mentally ill could be. Should we root for them or not?
I left the theater in a bit of a daze. Phoenix’s performance was nothing less than breathtaking, but I was like some of my fellow audience members, disturbed. Perhaps I felt that way because The Joker represents anarchy, which is contrary to my own personal political view. In the end, I think The Joker was excellent, and pushes all the right buttons for someone with a strong stomach for violence and a scathing comment on society – within Gotham and our own cities.
Go see the movie and judge for yourself.
Wegs
I was already looking forward to seeing this, and your review affirms my expectations. Phoenix’s physical transformation reminds me of fellow DC alum Christian Bale’s role in The Machinist.
Anyhow, I have a thought regarding the notion of whether art can invite violence. [Heh, that was auto-corrected from my intended “incite” and I chose to keep it.] It’s clear by now, given all the unspeakable acts of violence we see perpetrated by everyday people, there must be patterns by which someone’s “natural” lawfulness and respect for life, perhaps even kindness, erodes and gets eclipsed by the other thing… [What exactly is that other thing anyway? I can’t quite say I know with any certainty that it’s just a mix of anger, hate, frustration, loneliness, etc…. But I think there is something that gets broken, but not like a bone break. Maybe it’s akin to going deaf – percussive events throughout the person’s life cause successive losses of hearing/grip on humanity. Then at some point, the last incremental loss takes it to zero. During the years decline from 100 towards zero, maybe they were at risk of crossing the line at anytime during single digits.
Does art bear any responsibility when someone who’s in the single digit range goes and sees The Joker? I tend to believe that it’s the percussive events that tear down the type of person in question. I choose to believe that viewing a film like The Joker would not have the kind of destructive effect I hypothesized. Maybe it would provide, dare I say it, a kind of catharsis. Maybe not at all, I couldn’t say with any certainty.
I believe that art is doing a necessary job by causing us to think about how we can care for the people around us who might be suffering in the single digits. Art forces us to look at them, rather than pretend they aren’t there. I believe ignoring their suffering only raises the odds that they’ll cross over the line.
Eric,
Wow, what a great comment. So, thank you for taking the time to make it.
I do appreciate your hypothesis about how a person can move from 100 to 0 when it comes to behavior – gradually as those percussive events happen. I do think the movie kinda hits on those in some way. Clearly, he was struggling with life and getting destroyed every step of the way until several events pushed him to act. I do think that repeated exposure to certain things in the arts do desensitize us to the every day situations. Whether they push someone to act them out or live that way is another matter. Obviously, from my own experience, I’ve seen a lot more violence on television and movies, and I have not taken to violence, but I’m not at Zero yet…
Regardless, I think seeing the movie is best for anyone to make that choice. Agreed that Phoenix’s transformation is like Bale’s on the Machinist. I find it fascinating what these actors will do for a role.
Thanks, again for the comment. I’ll try to keep things interesting for you and others on these non-sports posts.
Jim
Thanks, Jim! This had been in the news locally here in Philly, and it was on my mind when I came across your post. I bet that is is probably surprisingly easy to reach zero, even though I think I’m far from it.
Miss the old 630 crew. Look forward to catching up in person.