A Treatise on Mental Illness

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2019)

If someone goes into the Joker movie thinking they are getting a Marvel style comic book movie they will be bored, confused and probably not like it much. To me this is much more a study of severe mental illness and the character development of a person on the fringe with delusions of grandeur and psychotic episodes. To me Joker is what happens when Taxi Driver takes place in a DC world.
I would recommend watching this movie like you would Fight Club, Memento or Inception. Be open to the story within the story, try to figure out the true story arc.
I went into the movie believing I would see a classic linear, but adult narrative, about an arch villain origin story. But this movie is much much more. I began to realize Joker was an untrustworthy narrator (though done in more of a third person) in the scene with Murray taking a shine to Arthur.
Later the scene with Sophie where she doesn't know Arthur drove it home. A big AHA moment. I began to understand the nature of this movie.
From then on, I was trying to figure out what really happened and what didn't. It was hard to unravel and kept me guessing. This is exactly what kept the movie interesting and is at it heart what the Joker is.
This movie nailed what it is like trying to have a relationship with someone who has delusions, hallucinations or psychotic episodes. One never knows what is real, what is imagined and what is partially real and partially embellished. Unfortunately I know all too well from my personal life where two very close family members suffer from delusions and psychotic episodes.
You can't put a rational lens on an irrational mind and expect clarity. Sometimes I think that rational people expect severely mentally ill people to have an a ha moment, to self reflect, to examine their irrational thoughts, or to realize they are having these episodes and have that inner rational mind that let's them know this isn't real. To someone suffering from these conditions, the psychotic episode/delusion/hallucination is realty, and those moments of clarity rarely if ever occur. When they do it is a huge breakthrough often brought on by intense therapy.
The result is a confusing mash of episodes, blurred reality and moments of random clarity. It is chaos. I think this movie does an admirable job of trying to mesh these conditions with keeping within the confines of a DC world ethos.
The Joker character is living in this world of psychotic chaos, and can not easily be explained in a linear or rational way. The Joker's origin is as confusing and chaotic after the movie as it was before the movie, as it should be.
More than any statement about society, this movie is a statement of how misunderstood the people suffering from severe mental illnesses are. As the viewer we have an invitation into this most intimate world, told by the Joker. It uncomfortably nails down how awkward and confusing it is to have a personal or professional relationship with a deeply mentally ill person. Viewers of the Joker get a 2 hour taste of that very experience. There are mixes of sympathy and anger toward Arthur, and you never quite know what is real and what is not.
To me this is high cinema wrapped in a DC world, and I hope it opens up a societal discussion on understanding mental illness. Early in the movie Arthur asks for more medications and the Psychiatrist he is seeing says he is on a dozen or so pills. It is a direct jab at the mental health profession that closed down mental health resources and opened the prescription pad in the 90's. You can't medicate someone out of the worst mental illnesses.
IMO this movie will age very well, and more discussion will come out of it.