Joker: Was the response to the movie’s backlash justified?

Joker received a lot of criticism before its release but with the movie now out, were Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s responses to the film’s criticism justified?

Joker has debuted to big box office numbers. The movie is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 69 percent rating, yet it has a lot of discourse around it.

The biggest talking point around the movie is its depiction of violence. There are concerns that the movie could inspire real-life violence. There are also concerns about the movie being an “incel-friendly origin story.”

The movie’s director, Todd Phillips, and its star, Joaquin Phoenix, have been asked about this discourse to varying responses, including Phoenix even walking out of an interview. Now that the movie is out, two questions need to be asked: were people overreacting to Joker, and were Phillips and Phoenix’s reactions to this backlash justified?

Phillips’ reactions probably got the most press. One reaction, in particular, got people riled up and that was his distaste of “woke” culture. The headlines were easy to dismiss as an old man who is unable to change with the times, but his full quote is something to examine.

His comments originated in a Phoenix cover story at Vanity Fair. His full quote in the article goes deeper into the state of comedy in Hollywood:

"“Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” he says. “There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore—I’ll tell you why, because all the fucking funny guys are like, ‘Fuck this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’ It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can’t do it, right? So you just go, ‘I’m out.’ I’m out, and you know what? With all my comedies—I think that what comedies in general all have in common—is they’re irreverent. So I go, ‘How do I do something irreverent, but fuck comedy? Oh I know, let’s take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this.’ And so that’s really where that came from.”"

Phillips is somewhat correct that comedies do not work anymore, but Judd Apatow correctly pointed out two years ago that studios have changed and are not as willing to take in comedy scripts as they used to, forcing writers to move to television.

Where Phillips is wrong is in his critique of the culture driving out comedians who want to offend people. “Woke” culture can also be defined as a society that is more welcoming of minority groups than they were before.

Comedians like George Carlin and Desus and Mero understand that times change and that things that were considered funny in the past are not as funny now.

To Phillips’ credit, he understands that the movies that get big budgets are comic book films. He has certainly accomplished his goal of creating a movie that turns the comic book universe on its head, but that has created a different kind of backlash.

The concern for a lot of people is that the violence in Joker could inspire actual violence. That kind of question was preposterous to Phoenix, who walked out of an interview after being asked that kind of question.

Time and time again, people misunderstand the impact of violent movies and video games. They have a profound effect on us, but they do not inspire people to go and commit violent crimes on others.

What Phillips and Phoenix do not seem to understand is the profound effect movies do have. Movies can shape our worldview, and our worldview may be reflected in movies. The reason why people want diversity in movies is that they want to see someone like themselves on the big screen.

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Joker may have done that for a select group of people. A sociologist tweeted about her experience watching the movie in Australia and contextualized what the movie means for the mostly white audience she saw the movie with.

Arthur Fleck’s character arc does have elements of incel culture. Whether or not Phillips intended to speak to this audience is irrelevant.

A movie like Fight Club has had many different interpretations. For some, it is an allegory to the dangers of aggressive masculinity and, for others, it is a calling for heightened masculinity in a world that is trying to bring it down.

While Phillips and Phoenix were correct in defending the movie’s violence as it probably will not inspire a widespread violent outbreak, and Phillips is correct that studios are moving on to different kinds of movies, they do not seem to understand the bigger impact this movie could have on impressionable people that may see the Joker as their hero.

As journalist Mark Harris points out, the movie was never going to fail because of the criticism it received. This is not some small-budget indie movie. This was a well-funded studio movie that Warner Bros. was determined to see succeed.

Will all this discourse amount to anything? Most likely not. Joker is a great movie from a technical standpoint, and Phoenix will likely receive an Oscar nomination. However, Joker attempts to tackle mental illness and social commentary but ultimately doesn’t have much to say, falling short of being a compelling movie.