By Sophia Chen ’20, Arts and Entertainment Editor

The movie, Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, tells the story of Arthur Fleck, famously known as the Joker. The Joker is brought to life by the actor Joaquin Phoenix, who plays an aspiring stand-up comedian who lives with his mother. The movie is set in Gotham City, which is overwhelmed with crime and has large populations of impoverished and unemployed citizens. 

A problem that I had with the Joker movie, among many other problems, is people claiming Fleck’s descent into madness to be compelling and symbolic of the treatment of the mentally disabled in society. In my opinion, his ‘descent’ is poorly executed and it misses showing us a man truly losing his self-identity. In addition, I felt that it didn’t make any substantial statement about societal inequality, which is the basis for Arthur Fleck’s descent into madness. 

As viewers, we are tasked with forming an opinion about what a movie means to us. Most of the public opinion is that this movie would spawn Joker sympathizers. However, I believe that this film doesn’t have the same message of societal upheaval that the previous Batman movies had. The main character himself says he has no mission or greater purpose. He just feels like life has given him the short end of the stick. Throughout the movie, Arthur Fleck endures countless moments of humiliation and embarrassment, none of which are punctuated by relief, comedy, or drama. 

As the movie progresses, we see that there is an overarching theme of societal inequality. The working class people of Gotham feel disenfranchised, and the wealthy Wayne family fail to empathize with the poor populations of Gotham City. These tensions are mirrored in Arthur Fleck’s journey to become the Joker when society finally pushes him to snap and become a murderous madman. 

Personally, what I found disappointing was that the Joker steps into his role as a madman entirely willingly. I believe he should have been more conflicted about becoming the Joker to characterize a more complex villain. Instead, his origin story as the Joker rubs off as flat and predictable. In the movie, his path towards villainy begins when he kills an attacker in self defense. While he completes many deplorable acts throughout the film, we see that he is not a despicable character. He is a man who was pushed over the edge by people who thought they had power over him. I think that the movie went about the Joker’s psyche the wrong way. I feel like the movie should have made the Joker more of a redeemable character, rather than someone who easily became a villain. 

It would have been far more compelling if the movie tried to bridge the empathy gap, and make him a villain that we could pity. This change would make the viewer more conflicted about whether the Joker is evil or a victim of societal inequality. However, by the end of the movie, he is more a serial killer than a symbol of societal change.

While Joaquin Phoenix is a powerful actor who can convey a complicated villain, if you want to see a movie about the Joker, you should just watch Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight.