I have not stopped thinking about this film. Although the DC Comics Batman theme loosely runs through It. This film is no light comic tale. It highlights how badly society treats mental health, the need for strong support networks, access to medication and most topical in the USA you do not give seriously mentally ill people access to guns.
The film shows how a damaged febrile society can latch on to an idea, a person however mad and embrace their world, a world where real anarchy becomes the norm and is celebrated.
To go back to DC world, Alfred once told Batman a story of his past explaining that some people can't be reasoned with or bought all they want is to see the world burn, Arthur Fleck, the Joker played by Joaquin Pheonix was 100% as Alfred described and some.
Pheonix, wow what a performance you could easily forget that the man was actually acting. Not forgetting a strong support cast including Robert De Niro.
That the people behind this great film were responsible for the hilarious Hangover is an astonishing thought with the films so vastly different. Todd Phillips directing both and being a joint screenplay writer on Joker and the person with the initial idea of this film.
When Silence of the Lambs (SOTL) was released, I bought in to it completely, watching the film countless times reading the series of books and looking forward to the later released prequels and the one sequel. In the psychological thriller genre for me, SOTL and its author Thomas Harris set the bar, that film also had career defining performances for both Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Unfortunately, Hollywood agreed and a string of copycats followed, pale imitations. Having seen Joker my hope is that this will not be the case again as they will just roll out a lot of films more and more violent, which would do the understanding of mental health in society and its sufferers a great disservice and missing all the well-made points from this film. They will just become gore fests which Joker was not.
This film should be a one off it did its job perfectly. A serious thank you to all who made it. Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins after all of these years step aside the bar has now gone up.
