The Joke's on You!

Before I begin, I want to address my anger and frustration at The Venice Film Festival over An Officer and a Spy. Like The Pianist, I’m sure it’s brilliant, but that’s irrelevant. Roman Polanski, the director, has been hiding in Europe following a statutory rape accusation, and he’s avoided charges since. By having his latest film receive accolades, it’s a form of enabling. It’s like no one cares that he’s a predator.

Still, while An Officer and a Spy received an ovation, the top prize actually went to Joker. Joker’s been touted as a potential Best Picture hopeful at the next Academy Awards, with Joaquin Phoenix a shoe-in for Best Actor. It’d be impressive that another comic book movie has a chance at the gold, but the movie’s controversies, including Phoenix losing 52 pounds, have turned-off many filmgoers. Also, its subject matter’s become the source criticism.

I get it. On one hand, melding mental illness and incel behaviour into a sympathetic portrayal of a psycho-killer is disturbing. Hollywood loves fetishizing and infantilizing the unwell, it’s practically its MO. It’s tiring to see them detract from conversations about mental health. And since several early reviews even acknowledged this, I’m more concerned than anything.

That said, I think people are being unfair. See, off-kilter individuals often make for good storytelling. It doesn’t always have to be that way, but crazy people allow for compelling forms of dark drama. And The Joker, Batman’s greatest nemesis, embodies that. Especially if Frank Miller’s The Killing Joke’s indication.

I strongly doubt that Joker’s intent is to ridicule depression and bipolar disorder. Todd Phillips, the director, was clearly inspired by Martin Scorcese, as evidenced by his casting of Robert De Niro. He may be delving into dark and unpleasant territory, as you’d expect, but his goal is to make a compelling drama. As are the writers and actors. And judging by reviews, they’ve largely succeeded.

Filmmaking, like all forms of narrative art, isn’t a perfect science. A story can be brilliant and still treat ideas with disdain, it happens regularly. To use examples of past Oscar nominees, The Dark Knight “fridged” its one female character of-note, while Black Panther can be read into as a CIA puff-piece. Both films are regarded as classics by critics and fans-alike, but they’re not always so sympathetic. No film can be fair to everything.

Joker’s no different: yes, it’s probably disturbing. And true, there’s a good chance it’ll divide people. But does that mean it’s undeserving of praise? No. I’m sure the film is still really good, otherwise it’d most-likely not receive that praise.

I get what the real issue is: it’ll inevitably fuel the internet dude-bros who feel like the movie “gets” them. It’s going to appeal to them most, become a meme for many years and generate a lot of real-world hate. And in the year 2019, when the leader of the world’s biggest superpower is a sociopath who actively spews hate, that’s a terrible reading of the global room. Joker, essentially, feels like it’s coming out at the wrong time.

But is that really the movie’s fault? Ignoring that the meme-train has already left the station, is it Joker that’s to blame for this behaviour? I’m not really one to talk, I’ve pointed fingers before at James Bond movies and The Matrix in the past, but Joker couldn’t have predicted this. Especially when works like The Matrix had their message skewed anyway.

I’m not kidding: think of all the pop-culture touchstones that’ve been misinterpreted by film nerds. The Matrix, a movie about not conforming to society’s toxic expectations, became a rallying cry for MRAs. Fight Club, which was about disseminating toxic masculinity, also became a rallying cry for MRAs. Even Star Wars, a franchise about fighting Space Nazis, is adored by actual Nazis, such that many people were upset when the newer films made the villains incompetent. (How many “The Empire Was Right” pieces do you think exist, after all?)

Joker being misread as praising vile behaviour would’ve happened regardless. And I think that that needs stressing. Besides, if the theatre shooting during the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises is indication, these behaviours don’t need specific catalysts to happen. All they need is a sociopathic, white supremacist jerk with an AR-15. It’s that simple.

Does this mean that Joker can’t be criticized? No. The movie won’t be perfect, and parts won’t be ideal. It also seems like DC and Warner Bros., in trying to make it “film snob-friendly”, are sanitizing it of its comic book elements. That last point bugs me the most, as, like with animation, comics will never be taken seriously. And given the box-office revenue of The MCU, that’s a slap in the face to reality.

But that doesn’t mean the movie won’t be worth people’s time. It might be, who knows? It isn’t available to the general public yet, and people’s minds can change. And isn’t that more important than ragging on a film for being too serious? Isn’t that what really matters? I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather a film say what it wants to, even at the expense of questionable subtext, then get shut out because it isn’t what people want right now.

Now, about An Officer and a Spy…