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Patrick Alt's avatar

"That the mob wearing Joker masks at the end of the film could code as left-wing Antifa rioters or red-hat-wearing incels—or Hong Kong freedom fighters or anti-Hezbollah protesters in Lebanon—was a feature, not a bug. It felt like everyone was mad, and that everyone was going a little mad."

See "V for Vendetta"...

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Christina Ballard's avatar

While I found it extremely depressing, I think the focus on if it was "good" or not needs to come from what the film showed us, not what it didn't. The mismatch between Gaga & Phonenix, the darkness/ grey, and the fractured scenes that do not end in a climax, seem to indicate this is how Arthur's brain was experiencing life.

As a fractured person, his fantasies never complete themselves, everything is grandiose (ex: having an incredibly talented singer in his corner singing just to him), because that is how he experiences life from inside his head.

This is much more about how the Joker experiences the world than how the world experiences the Joker.

I see it as a two hour peek into a psyche that fooled itself into thinking "the Joker" will somehow get away with it all and leave Arthur behind.

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