Empathy Dies and A Joker is Born

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2019)

Joker is making lots of headlines. Here's my take. Joker is a peer to A Clockwork Orange and Taxi Driver vs. a superhero movie. Joker is a very dark character piece on how a damaged loner is alienated beyond his breaking point. This is a very disturbing and excellent film. Joaquin Phoenix will be a Best Actor nominee for certain. The movie is drenched with important issues- mental illness, income disparity, healthcare, and how a society responds when these needs are not met. Joker is about the death of empathy. Jokers are created, they don't fall out of a comic book or become evil because they played too much Grand Theft Auto. I've read about folks walking out of this movie. I hope that those folks simply miscalculated, thinking they were going to see Iron Man or Captain America. The alternative reason is choosing not to see the seeds of dystopia all around us