Not sure what to make of it

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2019)

I went to see "Joker" today. I'm normally not into comic book movies but the trailer intrigued me. They didn't tell you that this is about the Joker until we see the make-up and the word "Gotham" towards the end. I thought it was the story of a good hearted guy who gets treated badly and loses the battle to believe in life and the human race, (which it turns out to be), and then I realized it's a 'Joker' origin story. I decided to see it when it came out. That decision was enforced when I heard of the praise Joachim Phoenix was getting for playing the lead role.
Well now I've seen it and I fully agree that Phoenix's performance is a memorable one, fully on a par with the famed Heath Ledger portrayal in "The Dark Knight" (2008). It's a showy role but he also catches some subtleties in the twisted character's manor and thinking. He'll probably win the Oscar for best actor. (Ledger posthumously won for supporting actor). It also struck me how much Phoenix looks like Laurence Oliver who might have played this role in another generation. There are a lot of references to other films in this one and one wonders whether Phoenix and the director might have had a Richard III look in mind, (a disheveled Richard III).
I'm still trying to figure out my reaction to the movie itself. It's the story of a villain and we are obviously supposed to identify with that character and to have sympathy for him. I had to wonder how a potential real-life villain would respond to it. Would he see it as a justification for violence? The issue of the attention mass shooters get seemed relevant. Should we show any sympathy for this type of character? I was disappointed that "Arthur Fleck", (the Joker's real name), wasn't a Chaplinesque character at the beginning: a simply soul who just wanted to make people laugh. He's already pretty screwed up to begin with. (There are scenes from Chaplin's "Modern Times" in the film.) it's made clear that society's cruelty and apathy toward people is the real villain of the piece. Bruce Wayne's father seems to have a Trumpian attitude toward society and the poor. Robert De Niro plays a talk show host who seems sympathetic in a fantasy sequence that seems to be from Scorcese's "King of Comedy" but is later revealed to have a Letterman-style cruelty in mocking people, including Arthur. This brings up the issue of perspective: What's comedy and what's tragedy? What's right and what's wrong? A thought that kept recurring is that our mass shooters and serial killers, if they seem to have a political point of view at all, seem to be right wingers with a grudge against put-upon minorities. This film suggests that individual violence is a rebellion by the put-upon against the rich and powerful. Of course it's logical that violent incidents will be more common as people's needs are not met and they feel more repressed and mistreated. But our problems these days seem to be more about people responding to right wing propaganda and scapegoating.
The film is relentlessly downbeat and very far from funny. The only "action is abrupt, bloody violence and rioting. There really isn't a good guy in the film. It's not fun to watch and decidedly not appropriate for children. But it is a strong character study and great performance. What impact it will have on society, I can't say.
A few things to look for: the license plate on the police car at the end reads "Industry First". What does that mean: police are on the side of American corporations? There are several obvious references to "Taxi Driver", including the presence of De Niro in this film. (Martin Scorcese was asked to direct this but was involved in his current film "the Irishman".) In the background during the final riot we see movie marquees for "Ace in the Hole", the 1951 Kirk Douglas movies about a exploitive newspaper reporter who turns the story of a guy trapped in an old mine into a national story while preventing his rescue to keep the story going. That film was renamed "The Big Carnival" by the studio to make it seem like a more 'fun' picture. And "Carnival" is the name Arthur gives his clown character at the beginning of this film. Another marquee has two titles: "Blow-Out" and "Zorro the Gay Blade". Those titles appear to have been chosen just because they were 1981 films and that when the action of this film is supposed to be taking place.