Op-Ed: ‘Joker’ is Not the Problem, the Media Is

Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” which I saw at the TIFF earlier in September, is a fascinating, dark and despairing arthouse movie that also happens to have been made by a big studio. And yet, the negative media attention on the film is a more problematic issue than the film itself. The backlash from not just news outlets, but critics as well, is trying to sell the idea that Joker is a dangerous film: a rallying cry for Incels and angry white males who might relate to the film’s murderous lead character. Indiewire’s David Ehrlich claimed in his review that the film spoke: “to the people in our world who are predisposed to think of Arthur as a role model: lonely, creatively impotent white men who are drawn to hateful ideologies because of the angry communities that ferment around them.”

Why are critics complaining that this could spark violence by way of “incels”? Because they can’t handle the truth. What is the truth? That “Joker” is a film mirroring our own society, and it dares us to look at ourselves in the mirror. The parallels to today’s world are there — societal alienation has never felt more current than it does today. Joker, AKA Arthur Fleck’s situation could attest to 21st-century anxieties; his descent into madness is immaculately horrifying because it feels all too relevant and anchored up by present-day realities and tensions. The film comes out at a time when the country feels at a crossroads between civility and chaos. Many critics are calling the film dangerous in its, supposed, call to arms and revolution, but the fact that this movie is actually sparking panic in people must mean that it has hit a societal nerve, which renders it an indelible statement of current-day socio-political anxieties.

I think we should take the time to acknowledge the elitism going on right now with many journalists. They believe that, given the higher intellect God has bestowed upon them, they know exactly how the masses will think. In their world, the mainstream drones they speak down to may, oh gosh, get the wrong message, might draw the wrong conclusions – and we simply can’t take that risk. The film is a danger to society, they say! I mean, how arrogant must you be to think this way?! This liberal groupthink is actually a detriment to a political belief that should actually pride itself on freedoms of speech and the right to express oneself through art. Rather, the far-left has turned exactly into the kind of right-wing groupthink which blamed videogames for gun violence back in the Clinton and Bush years.

This attempt to censor “Joker” won’t work. Audiences can see through the aforementioned elitism, they can think for themselves, come to their own conclusions as to whether or not the film is worthy. The film is set to open to worldwide box-office this coming weekend that will near the $155 million mark, only confirming the scathingly dwindling relevance of mass media journalism.