Accidental social experiment

Rating: 5/10 (5 October 2019)

If you are one of the hundreds of thousands considering this a masterpiece is it because you approve of the apparent actual social commentary, do you relate to Arthur Fleck's frustration and anger with the actual society or, maybe, you just like Joaquin Phoenix's performance--which is not to say it wasn't great--or maybe you have a completely different reason, something having meaning only for you.
Whatever your reason is, "Joker" fails at everything I listed so far (except Phoenix's performance). So, it attempts to join in on the zeitgeist curve by seeming actual to the societal mood. It ends up as an unrealistic, self-important, self-indulgent troublesome millennial. There are pieces of truth in the representation of its society, but overall, director Todd Phillips does not seem able to extract substance from reality. He needs to morph modern society into something worse than it is. So, of course, we sympathize with the clown. How can we not? Phillips's 80's Gotham is nearly a post-apocalyptic totalitarian regime. I mean, do you know why "Taxi Driver", one of the movies this one claims to be inspired by, worked? Because it was not built on a hyperbola. Everything was more or less embedded in actuality.
Despite everything, "Joker" does something quite interesting. First of all, it succeeds in making us sympathize a criminal. Sure, some of that comes from the ridiculous social misunderstanding, but some of it comes from Fleck's own troubled past. Despite him murdering people in cold-blood simply because they were irritating or insulting, I still felt for him. There is a certain cathartic feeling when you give way to anger, like a dangerous, forbidden freedom. It is here that Philips created an accidental social experiment, injecting the viewer with evil pleasures, challenging him/her to buy into it and if you do, you should feel guilty afterwards.
Somehow, in the end, I did still believe that Arthur Fleck was a good guy. The man simply wanted to be a comedian, and he looked up to a talk-show host, Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). Funny, in "The King of Comedy" it was De Niro who played the aspiring comedian. Also, much like Travis Bickle, despite hating society, he is looking only for understanding, appreciation and someone to love--aren't we all? Throughout it all, Phoenix's performance is indeed great, but it often feels more like flamboyance and theatrics. The man uses all his talent contorting through Philips' mess and it shows as watching him becomes exhausting.
For any anxiety-induced young adult, "Joker" might feel like the second coming. It is evil enough to be taken seriously. And while its arguments work, their source is a society which is exaggerated, unreal, even illogical at times. The movie is a tempting pitfall of primordial satisfaction but please, don't throw yourself into it.