10 Movies You Constantly Have To Defend Hating
5. Joker
Now I'm just going to hedge my bets here and assure you that Joker isn't a terrible film. What it is, however, is a film so unnecessarily hyped up that legions of fans will kick your door down at any whiff of criticism.
A gritty, bleak take on the comic-book villain's origin set in early 1980s Gotham City, the 2019 film sees Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck - a mentally ill, down-on-his-luck party clown who constantly finds himself on the receiving end of violent abuse and whose access to medication and therapy is lost due to budget cuts. The character's spiralling into deepening psychosis and acts of brutal violence had audiences enraptured, thanks in no small part to Phoenix's committed performance.
When you take a step back, however, Joker ain't all that. Despite its lofty ambitions to present viewers with a nuanced and tragic story, the film says very little about any of the issues it presents, and what it does say is mean-spirited and borderline irresponsible. The mentally-ill-to-unhinged-murderer pipeline is something we shouldn't still be pushing, and the film's handling of civil unrest and class struggle feels confused and half-baked.
Also, hot tip for screenwriters. In your climactic scene, don't resort to having the protagonist verbally explain the point of the film.