A celebration of degeneracy

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2019)

This Should have been called Loser. It's a brave piece of cinema from DC. A character study piece with little action. Most of what is going on is internal. This is neither easy to do nor easy to watch in many cases but here it works. This is powerful stuff - the weaponisation of mental illness. Strongly influenced by Scorsese's taxi driver and king of comedy which were also about two losers with no place or meaning in life who find inadvertent fame (or infamy) through violent, criminal acts.
Like the films of the New Hollywood 70s, Joker is a celebration of degeneracy. It clearly taps into current political tensions as it offers us up a different kind of hero we've recently been used to seeing in the superhero universe. The anti hero.
It's a good film and I didn't check my watch once but if you're expecting action you'll be disappointed. It may occupy the same universe as batman v superman but it doesn't feel like it here. What year it's supposed to be set in is also not clear as smoking in inside places is clearly not illegal here. It feels like it's the 70s.
Joker is the corporate's idea of who our hero should be today. A degenerate loser who can't quite tell between what's real and what's not. A narcissist who is apolitical and doesn't really stand for anything other than being loved by strangers.