Joker can be anyone that feels fucked by the rotten hellscape that is society he isn’t like Batman and has to be Bruce Wayne or Superman who has to be Clark Kent
I did... I wasn't aware that the relationship was originally intended to be real and the cat fake. I do like the route they took on that. Also the scene at the talk show where he goes on a rant felt off. I thought it was interesting the actor himself said it was the worst take. Yet the best one to go with the narrative. I do wish they would've gone a bit deeper on Arthur's past and issues as a kid. They cut it out and I understand why. The links to the previous Joker by Ledger. Also likely didn't want to create to much sympathy for the character. I think the brief recap gave viewers a moment to feel the horror and be sympathetic and then they took it all away the next scene when he killed his mom.
I mentioned this in my initial review and I felt if you didn't name this Joker it would pass as just a movie and not something that would go along with a comic universe. I'm on board with this "Joker" being what started the movement to the eventual Joker who battles with a full grown Bruce Wayne. They did an amazing job of blurring lines and leaving you question what if anything really happened vs what was made up in the mind of Arthur. That final scene with the doctor before he kills her she ask's him for a joke and the response was "you wouldn't get it". Its so well done to make you question if anything you just watched actually did happen. Did he really murder those people? Was he actually a clown? Maybe he's been locked up as a kid and never released. Its pretty wild that the Movie is done so well it allows people to imagine an entire new plot and not be mad at what they got to see in the theater.
Eddie Murphy in the 80s says hello. There's a whole bunch of comedians that, once upon a time, cut their teeth with jokes at the expense of other marginalized groups just because it was socially acceptable at the time.
Eddie didn’t become the biggest star in America off his handful of gay jokes. He also made fun of everyone. Comedians don’t get on stage intending to make members of the audience feel bad. It’s quite literally the exact opposite of what they’re trying to accomplish.
He didn't. But he did make them. And looking back, man, they're a bad look. And you're moving the goalposts from saying comedy has never been about making people feel bad to saying he didn't get famous for it. And yes, they're trying to make most people laugh and not feel bad. That's not a big deal if the prevailing cultural opinion is that x (tiny group that most people don't like) are y. That's easy and you're alienating how many people? Very few.
Mostly I think people who bitch about comedy changing are people who would just really like to continue using 4-6 words that became unacceptable in the last 5-10 years. Everything else is relatively the same.
I can’t pin faults on a movie depicting something because it might have been a fantasy?!? I’m being told my criticism isn’t valid because I made an assumption based on what was shown? Spoiler Do you guys really think Todd Phillips, director of Road Trip, who previously had explicitly shown that Arthur’s fantasies are fantasies....also went a level deeper and had OTHER fantasies that weren’t explicitly shown? Y’all are giving him waaaaay more credit that he deserves.
Moving the goalposts? I was responding to your assertion that he “cut his teeth” on gay jokes, which is ridiculous. He cut his teeth doing character work lampooning everyone in society—white elites, black people, Italians, Asians, men, women, fat people, cops, gays, etc... His two biggest early bits were Al Green and Buckwheat. Delirious and Raw were filmed in DC and MSG. Not quite San Francisco but definitely cities well-known to have large and socially-active LGBT populations. In Delerious (DC) he does an entire bit on Reaganomics. Where there no right-leaning people in the audience? No black people when he’s making fun of Michael Jackson and family cookouts? For fuck’s sake. I’m not saying that you have to find his bits funny, or that they would play the same today, or even that there was no homophobia to be found in them. All I’m saying is I have zero patience for Twitter hardos who keep a scorecard full of diagrams of which direction a joke is”punching” to determine who they think “can” and “can’t” do comedy. Go to the show or don’t. Laugh or don’t. It’s really that simple.
And in the same token, if your brand of humor is no longer socially acceptable, don't bitch about comedy changing or sjws ruining things. They're not unless you're just bad at comedy. It's clearly all about intention and walking that line. If you can't walk the line without sounding racist or homophobic or whatever else, then stop doing comedy. That's the punch down thing for most people, I think. It's not necessarily that those groups are hands off. It's that you get less latitude from crowds when those people are the subject of your humor. If you're good at it, you're good. If you're not, you're not.
I agree in large part with this, like I said I think comedy is doing just fine and disagree with Phillips that it’s become a dead medium, although there’s a different dynamic at play in movies vs pure comedy. You’re relying on the approval of a lot of other people for the former whereas the latter you can do whatever you want. At the same time, it’s undeniable that much of the online/journalistic outrage over several of the most notable comedians’ latest work doesn’t map at all to how the “crowd” is reacting to it. Take Dave Chappelle’s RT score on his latest special: 23% on media pre-release then 99% with fans. He’s getting less latitude with a select group of twitter activists, not his actual audience.
Perfect example of why cancel culture is an in real life myth and comedy is fine if you're good at it.
Agreed, although it’s not so much a myth as it is a product of a very vocal and detached minority. Which is why I ridiculed that tweet that shamelessly pandered to the cancel culture mob.
couple things theres always been massive divides between critics and fans, its not new. look at some of the most profitable movies of all time compared to what critics thought. in Daves newest special the second people realized there was some sad reactionary takes in it the right wingers mobilized so they could make this very argument, especially because critics largely thought it was one of his worst specials. so I reject the entire premise that critics goals were ever to represent fan approval basically, but trying to transpose this on to some broader cultural critique about "cancel culture" and "twitter activists" is just fever dreams for reactionary morons to whine about cultural marxism.
social media allowing random people (or god forbid, disadvantaged groups to be able to mobilize en masse) to interact with powerful people who were used to operating without ever being criticized will be the end of the world
Typically when you have such a massive divide between the critics and fans it’s self-admitted “bad” movie that fans love for being bad and campy. All the Fast and Furious fans that enjoyed Tokyo Drift know it isn’t Citizen Cane and won’t win any Oscars. That wasn’t my point. Maron’s tweet was basically a carbon copy of the first critical reviews for Sticks and Stones. He was right about Phillips but totally wrong about the reason.
I just want to interject here. Fast and Furious fans don't like Tokyo Drift. That's an even lesser, subhuman, genre of movie goer.
Marc Maron—son of a doctor, Boston University educated television personality, $2million net worth, $14K/podcast, voice of the disadvantaged speaking truth to power.
Idk what this means but if you can’t find joy in a fish outta water story that follows a charming southern kid and his rise to the top of the street racing scene in Tokyo then maybe joy just ain’t your thing
Forgetting the point of this post, Marc Maron is only worth $2 million? That can't be right. That's shockingly shitty for someone that well known.
His pod gets more than 2.75 million downloads a month and is regularly a top 100 podcast in the app store.
Marons IFC show was good but seemingly no one watched it. I also laughed at how two of the other stars are credited Dave Anthony as himself, Marc's pathetic friend Andy Kindler as himself, Marc's other pathetic friend
I don’t think a bunch of American-University educated, mostly-white, Twitter “activists” complaining about Joker’s portrayal of mental illness or “punching down” in comedy will be the end of the world, Lyrch. I also don’t think of them as cultural revolutionaries.
“Faggots were mad” Reminds me of Chappelles recent Netflix. And just like he said, if you are offended remember you clicked on his face to watch it. Your mistake.
That was one awfully mediocre movie and ho-ly-shit is society spending too much time hemming and hawing over it
Haven't read a post in this thread. I successfully avoided every trailer, review, and almost any detail about this movie. I was so excited when I heard about it that I wanted to go in completely blind because I knew the hype should be crazy and trailers are so revealing these days. Finally saw it tonight and was so happy with the movie and my decision to avoid trailers. Phoenix deserves to be considered for an Oscar. I dunno if he deserves the win but man he was incredible.
Watched it again Loved it again Still have no idea which narrative to believe and how to interpret the ending
I actually liked it better on my second watch. I was extremely hungover on my first watch but I read the comments here about it dragging which made me pay attention on second watch. I didn't notice it at all. Maybe I was looking too hard at trying to figure out what wasn't real.