I’m gonna be talking about Joker, the film that recently came out, so this post will make a whole lot more sense if you’ve already seen the film. And you should see it, it’s really good. I’ll be talking about various plot points and things that happen, as well as the ideas the film brings up, so it’ll probably be hard to follow along if you haven’t seen it. This is not a review, and there’s a whole lot I’d like to say about this film that I won’t be able to fit in this post without it being a complete mess. I could easily write multiple entries about various aspects of this film. I’m seriously considering a second one, but I might change my mind. The entire clown protest plotline has much more to it than there might initially seem to be.

A lot of people seem to think it’s just a generic or even cynical depiction of civil unrest and therefore there’s nothing interesting being said there. I disagree, I think in part that generic-ness is the point actually but I’d need to elaborate on that to really explain myself. So clearly I’m just not going to be able to say everything I want to in this entry, but I’ve been quite “active” in the many threads on /tv/ over the last week or so, so just check out those because there’s been some really great discussion in there. Shocking I know, it turns out that /tv/ isn’t total trash.

Now this blog doesn’t really have a topic, it’s kind of miscellaneous for the most part, but there is one theme you could say that generally can be felt from my writings here so far. I guess you could call it the experience of the loner/ robot, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call this an “incel blog” because I don’t really like that term very much, but I recognise the utility of it. Far more people have heard of the term “incel” than “robot”, it gives me more normie appeal, ironically. I talk about whatever interests me, philosophy and music and so on, but because I am a bit of a recluse and I also talk about my own experiences there is a certain “vibe” to this blog. So I’m going to talk about how the film relates to that, how it resonates with me and people like me, and why. I’ll talk about some of the other aspects of the film to some degree, but in order too keep some kind of through-line I’ll have to restrict myself somewhat. Maybe I’ll write more about this film in future, we’ll see.

See the final act of Joker is so well done, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Of course, the whole film is fantastic and I loved it, but it’s really in the third act that the film truly comes into it’s own. There’s a lot of set up beforehand, and I’ll try and talk about that too, but where this film stands out amongst the various films it’s clearly heavily inspired by is in how it ends. You’ve probably seen all the criticisms about how it’s too similar to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, and it’s true that the film is perhaps a little more than simply an homage to those two films. The plot of Joker is like an amalgamation of the plots from both of them, and the aesthetic similarities are impossible to miss, but I think that those things are rather superficial. The underlying message of Joker, the people it is intended to appeal to, that’s where this film differs.

Sure, Taxi Driver is about a loner and the experience of alienation and The King of Comedy is about a guy who feels ignored and dismissed by society, but Arthur Fleck is quite different to both of those characters. Arthur Fleck really is almost a perfect representation of this particular modern archetype of “the incel“, it’s actually quite concerning how much I can relate to this character. He’s not simply a loner, he’s a mentally ill loner that society abandoned and treated like trash, in his own words. The way this film differs is in how the actions he takes, particularly during the final act, are presented. In Taxi Driver the shootout at the brothel is meant to show the final step in Travis Bickle’s self destruction, and the kidnapping and stand up performance at the end of TKoC is meant to be seen by the audience as a despicable act.

Taxi Driver is about how lack of social relationships can damage someone, but you’re not really meant to be rooting for Travis Bickle when he goes to kill the men at the brothel. TKoC is about how the media props up awful people, which is why the main character is rewarded for what he does in the end. You can almost see Robert DeNiro’s character in Joker actually, Murray Franklin, as someone his character from TKoC could have ended up becoming. Murray is deliberately not very funny by the way, his jokes are meant to be corny (super cats!) and the “APPLAUD” signs are highlighted for a reason in the film. Arthur’s jokes on the other hand, are actually quite amusing, but totally fall flat. So you could even say that Joker is continuing that message, as well as making the point at the same time that what’s actually funny isn’t important, society decides who’s funny before you can even make a joke.

Anyway as I was saying, in comparison to those two films you are actually meant to feel good about the ending of Joker. It’s basic cinematic language, everything from the music that’s played at various points in the final act to the bright colours in contrast to the dingy look of the earlier parts of the film, as well as Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the character with his open and carefree body language. These are all there to show that this is a positive moment. Joker’s ending is triumphant, and unapologetically so. Which is interesting, because other than a few details the final sequence is basically very similar to a mass shooting. At least if you understand what a mass shooting really is. Arthur is exactly the kind of person who would either do something like that, or fantasise about it.

Speaking of fantasy, this is really what a significant amount of the discussion of the film is about. There’s all kinds of theories about whether he imagined some or all of the events of the film, or if he’s remembering but not quite accurately, and so on. And as interesting as that is, I think any attempt to figure out what “really happened” and what was “in his head” is kind of pointless. It’s fun to talk about, I’ve enjoyed watching the many arguments on /tv/ about it to be sure, but I do think that it’s deliberately impossible to ever figure out. I think all of those various theories are meant to be equally plausible, and I also think that such theorising is intended as well. That’s the point of the relationship with the neighbour woman being revealed to be imaginary, as well as the sequence early on where Arthur fantasises about being a guest on Murray’s show.

They’re both there to show that he is someone who deals with delusions, maladaptive daydreaming, dissociation and so on. To show us that it’s an absolute certainty that some of the events in the film are in his head, and therefore plant the seed that anything else could be as well. There’s more to both the relationship scenes and the scene early on where he imagines being on the show of course, but that is a primary purpose for both of them as they relate to the film as a whole. I think another interesting thing about the Murray scene for example is to show that Arthur really is quite a wholesome and good natured person at first. I mean, the “nice guy” persona can’t be simply a façade if it’s actually the most noticeable in his daydreams.

It’s almost like exactly what I was talking about in my entry about The Little Prince, and this other post, where I discussed how I’ve always had this desire to not simply appear but truly be innocent and I guess kind of childlike. Maybe even naïve in a way, or cherubic. Is it starting to make sense why I loved this film so much? It’s like it covered everything I’ve talked about in this blog and that I find myself thinking about in my free time. I know that it’s a major pedowood production, it’s going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, but it really feels like this film was made for me. It touches so many of the things that define my life. I’m worried that this entry is going to just end up with me linking to everything else I’ve ever written, because it just hits every single issue I talk about on here. There’s so much in this film, if I wanted I could probably write an entire post about each scene.

Anyway I kind of got off track, so there are people who think that every scene is “in his head” other than the very last where he’s talking to the psychiatrist in the asylum, and he’s telling her the story in that scene. Or some people think that everything after he gets taken off the medication is a delusion, and some say he really did steal the sign himself and the very first scene of the film can’t even be trusted. I’ve heard that the scene where he kills those guys in self defence on the train is the point where he starts imagining things, or remembering wrongly. I’ve heard that maybe everything after he puts the make-up on is imaginary. Someone said that maybe he got caught in that scene where he steals the documents about his mother in the asylum, and from that point on he’s just making the story up to the psychiatrist after being locked up in Arkham.

I’ve also heard it suggested that there is no specific turning point, but that there are more scenes that are delusions than the ones we know for sure to be fantasy simply peppered throughout the film, and of course there are various different ideas about which ones those are. Basically, every single scene in the film gives you some reason to doubt it. On the second viewing (I went to see it a second time, and I’m considering trying to go one more time) having had the time to think about all of this, you really do feel this constant uncertainty throughout the entire experience. It’s a defining characteristic of the movie, and you may see where I’m going with this. I can’t think of any other films that have done such a great job of creating this effect with the medium. It’s incredibly well done, and there’s more too.

There are a quite a few things that happen in the story that usually I would dismiss as simply plot holes, but I actually think in this case they may have been deliberate. Again, to further create this uncertainty or doubt which just emanates from this film throughout. For example, we know that Arthur’s mother was institutionalised for allowing Arthur to be abused by her boyfriend and also for showing the exact same tendencies as Arthur when it comes to delusions by imagining this secret love affair with Thomas Wayne which produced Arthur. Yet the documents prove that Arthur was adopted, so he isn’t the son of Thomas Wayne. Then you start to think, if he’s adopted how can he have inherited the same delusional tendencies and other mental illnesses from his mother.

This is why a lot of people theorise that Thomas Wayne actually managed to get documents forged saying Arthur is adopted, and Arthur actually is his illegitimate son. He’s certainly a very powerful man, who could have something like that done. There are indeed a few clues left to imply that there really was an affair, and that Wayne had Arthur’s mother put in the asylum to shut her up, like the signed note from him on the photo which is written in different handwriting to how she writes his initials on the letter. It’s very conspiratorial though, it’s far more likely that Arthur was simply adopted. These are just more seeds of doubt, planted to further make you feel like you can’t trust anything you’re seeing.

This film is like a jigsaw puzzle, but several of the pieces have been damaged or broken so that every time you think you’re starting to piece it together you realise something is simply “off” and you can’t quite place it. The answer is just out of reach, and everything seems mostly normal but clearly it’s going terribly wrong for the main person involved. Now, in my Addenda post which I wrote around the time of the one year anniversary of starting this blog I talked about exactly this. This feeling of doubt or uncertainty is something that follows me around constantly, my ability to even trust the reality around me has slowly got worse over the years in parallel with my increasing level of isolation. This film has actually recreated one of the defining parts of my life, in it’s own way.

That entry was a response to loads of previous posts I’d written over the first year since starting this project, so I don’t suggest you read it unless you’re one of my long term readers (which most of the people reading this won’t be as I intend to link this entry on /tv/ and maybe /r9k/ as well) here as it will make no sense. Actually I don’t really expect many people to click on any of the links in this post, I’m just including them because it’s a useful way to show why this film resonated with me so much. It’s probably the same for a lot of the people who likes this film, even if they’re not as conscious of it they are able to intuit a lot of the things I’m talking about here. So think of the links in this post like a literary technique rather than something you’re implored to click on, but if you want to that’s great too. I’m always happy to make new friends.

Speaking of losing touch with reality, there’s another scene in the film which relates to this that I found really interesting. Actually, it’s one line in particular that Arthur says that I’m really talking about. It’s during the second visit with the therapist, who unfortunately is one of the characters who didn’t get what she deserved. He says “some days I’m not even sure I exist”. Now this line reminds me of something I’ve spoken about in several different posts here before. I’ve often said that one of the reasons I write what I do, and specifically try to write about the things that happen or have happened to me, is to fight the doubt I was talking about a second ago. By having them written and recorded, and knowing other people have read them, it helps this creeping suspicion I often get about my own memories after some time has passed.

I often wonder if I myself suffer from delusions, far more mild than anything like Arthur (and perhaps his mother) suffer from, but it’s still a concern. I often wonder if maybe my memories are wrong, in my post Blackpill Nights for example I wrote about a series of events that I can remember very vividly, yet I can’t shake this feeling that maybe they didn’t happen like I remember at all and my ego has just manufactured or at least altered the memories as some kind of coping mechanism. To deal with the fact that in reality I’m a total loser, by fooling myself into thinking that I’m actually something I’m not. I suppose if this is the case (although as I said, these memories are all very clear in my mind to this day) it’s similar in a sense to the “I’m smart but lazy” cope you often hear, but in regard to something other than intelligence.

The therapist really does deserve a treatment similar to what Arthur’s mother gets by the way, notice how the first time there’s any kind of warmth or care in her voice is when she talks about a problem Arthur is facing that she also suffers from. That being the funding to her office being cut off, which means she’s going to lose her job. Until then her voice is totally cold, she doesn’t give a single shit about Arthur. His own therapist, and she doesn’t care at all. He realises this, pay close attention and you’ll notice his tone slightly change as he asks her if she’s ever actually listened to him. “You always ask if I’m having bad thoughts… All I have are bad thoughts”. It’s a great line, and I like to think the subtext is that in that moment he realises something that I myself realised around the time I started this blog.

I wrote a post pretty early on which was a total mess, titled Riding a train of thought. I’m not just trying to be modest, it really is pretty awful like most of the early posts I wrote were. I was still finding my footing at first, I would say I really started to hit my stride shortly after the New Year but I started this blog in September 2018. Not that I’m doing anything special here, but I’m happy with it for the most part. Anyway, in that post and then later in a sort of follow up I talked about this realisation I had about what it really means to ignore someone/ be ignored. People like me, use whatever term you want (loner, loser, outcast, reject, etc.) will often talk about how they feel invisible or ignored. This ties in with that feeling that you’re not even sure you exist, as Arthur puts it, but there’s more to it.

Elliot Rodger remarked in his final video that people always treated him “like a mouse”, and if you go on /r9k/ you’ll find similar complaints all the time. It’s a trope at this point, people like us feel ignored or left out. The normalfag response is usually some bullshit about being less timid and having more confidence, and sure that plays a role but here’s what they’re not telling you. You being left out, or ignored, it’s not just because you’re quiet/ not being noticed. It’s something they’re doing on purpose, to harm you. People don’t ignore people because they don’t care about them, they do it to people they actively dislike. I’m not saying it’s comparable to actual violence, but it is a passive aggressive form of mental abuse. Especially if it’s been a chronic issue for you throughout your life.

So I actually think this scene has more importance than maybe people realise, if my interpretation that he is making a similar sort of realisation in this scene to the one I had is correct. It’s where the character starts to realise that maybe that niggling feeling that he’s been wronged somehow actually has some merit. We all have this feeling, people like us. Those incels you hear so much about who are maybe less intelligent or inhibited will express it in a way that makes them look entitled or stupid, but actually they’re not wrong. They just aren’t able to articulate what it is they’re feeling properly, and in turn this gives fuel to the normies who say that people in our situation deserve to be here. That we’ve been pushed away by society because of some personality defect, or because we’re bad people.

Ironically, it’s exactly because most “incels” are actually pretty good people that they’re so easily convinced that perhaps they’re not. Which is why if they ever do werewolf and go wild, it usually takes a decade or two. It comes after realisations like this, something happens to make them understand finally that it really never was their fault. So of course they’re angry, and of course they lash out. That’s why this scene is important, because a switch is flipped where he no longer blames himself. Notice the body language when he delivers that “all I have are bad thoughts” line, it’s a change from everything up until that point. He’s starting to care less, he’s able to lose that meekness for a moment. It comes back, but it’s the start of the process.

This is similar to where I am I think, I’ve had moments like that scene before. I have a customer facing job, and some of the people who come through the shop can be quite rude. Usually I just take it, I’m a shy and weak person, but there have been a few cases where I pushed back a little. I’m not sure why, and it’s not something I can choose to “activate”, but somehow in a few instances I have somehow developed a spine. And people do change their demeanour towards you when they realise they can’t fuck around anymore, I’ve got to admit. I don’t want to be that kind of person though, I think that’s what’s holding me (and others like me, and Arthur too) back. I actually truly want to be a nice person, it’s not an act or a ploy or anything like that. Despite what people may say.

The real turning point in the film though, is when he kills his mother. After that, he truly does shed this timid persona completely. It’s the point of no return for the character. And yes I think she got what she deserved. This isn’t me being edgy, again going back to talking about cinematic language the scene is clearly a positive one in a twisted sort of way. You’re meant to see it as a good thing that he is finally able to remove her overbearing presence from his life. The scene is much lighter than the shadowy and murky gloom that you get on screen until that point. Even the other scenes in that same hospital room are much darker, so it’s clearly by design that there’s a change in this one.

On the one hand there’s the interpretation I’ve heard a few times that this scene is evoking some kind of religious/ Christian imagery, a bright or even divine seeming white light shining out in an (up until this point) otherwise very dark environment. In this scene Arthur dies you could say, and is then reborn, not unlike Christ himself. Maybe that was the intention, but I think it was something more simple. In my opinion the darkness that covers the first two acts of the film is simply representative of Arthur’s depression. By killing his mother, the root cause behind all of his problems, he is able to shed that.

I’m pretty sure that he decides to kill himself at the same point that he decides to kill his mother as well. He gets the invite for the Murray show in the scene right before see, and we know that even as late as when he sits down in the seat to talk to Murray he was probably still only planning to shoot himself. Now there are a lot of stories of people who have decided to kill themselves, who’ve claimed that after making that decision they became much happier. They still go through with it, because they know that the depression will return if they don’t, but something about finally making real plans for suicide just clears the heaviness away.

It actually reminds me of something a person I know told me about my mother, who killed herself when I was around the age of 14. I’m not bringing this up for pity points, it is actually relevant. On the very same day that she did it, I was away visiting my dad, but in the morning she went shopping to buy the gin she needed and she bumped into this family friend. Anyway at the funeral he was there with the rest of his family and telling me and my dad about this chance meeting with her, he said she had seemed really happy. So happy that he couldn’t even believe the news when he heard it at first. I’ve heard quite a few anecdotes like this from people on 4chan, or in news stories and so on. You probably have as well, it’s a well understood phenomenon I think.

The scene ends with the sun shining in through the window as Arthur stares out of it with his head craned upwards slightly, and from this scene onwards the film remains quite a bit brighter. The next scene is in his apartment on the morning of the Murray appearance and it’s the first time we see what the place looks like during the day time. There are a couple of daytime scenes earlier in the film, the first scene where he gets mugged and beaten of course, and when he visits Wayne manor, and the establishing shot of Arkham Asylum. Those scenes somehow still have this darkness to them though, and they’re all quite cold and sterile. The scene when he kills his mother, and then after in the apartment when he kill the fat guy who gave him the gun (assuming that scene is reliable), are the first time we see any sunlight that isn’t blocked by smog or clouds in the entire film.

Now, I said earlier that I think Arthur’s mother got what she deserved, and I meant it. I don’t think I need to explain to a bunch of ebin redpilled gamers on the internet (and I’m aware that that’s the kind of people this blog appeals to) why single mothers are fucking awful. The facts speak for themselves, and this film is certainly attacking single mothers, which is a good thing. However, again I’m going to have to disagree with the point I’m seeing quite frequently made that the subplot with his mother is primarily there to criticise single mothers. Rather I think that’s a secondary concern, and the real point is to talk about the negative effect of overbearing and mentally ill parents and also how demoralising it is to be stuck with them after adulthood.

Or maybe I’m just noticing it because that is my own experience, again I’m going to link to another of my posts I’m sorry. In a post during early summer called Kinda late in the game, I talked in some detail about my relationship with my dad who has lived with me since my mother passed away. It’s a long post, and not exclusively about my dad but it’s the only one where I’ve talked about our relationship in any real detail. Anyway I think the similarities between my father and Arthur’s mother are quite clear, and so I understand very well the resentment that Arthur is feeling when he puts that pillow over her face. I’m not saying I want to kill my dad or anything edgy like that, after all my dad never let any of the kind of awful abuse that Arthur experienced happen to me. I’m fortunate in that way, I was never abused or mistreated physically as a child it’s true.

I would argue that having to put up with my dad and his clear mental illness, which I talk about in that post, could be considered mental abuse though. And the fact that I am forced to remain living with him, because I’m the owner of the flat (apartment) as I inherited it from my mother and he refuses to leave. Even though I’m 22 years old, and could afford to live on my own without him. He is receiving government gibs, while I actually work. I’m kind of being held hostage, even if I was able to find friends or a girlfriend I wouldn’t be able to bring them here because of him. I remember I stopped inviting my friends to visit towards the last year of school because I was embarrassed by him. He’s a fat alcoholic who dresses like a fucking homeless person and talks to himself loudly so I can never even have peace and quiet in my own home. So yes, I admit I got some vicarious enjoyment from seeing her get smothered with the pillow.

So after he kills the fat guy from work, he finished his make up and from here until the end the movie is just a joy to watch. Both times I saw it I had a huge smile on my face the entire time, it was beautiful. I was basically reacting pretty similarly to how he was in the scene the header image is taken from. I wasn’t laughing out loud maniacally but I think I felt similarly to how he did when he was watching the destruction around the car as I watched the events of the ending play out. That’s why I picked that image, and why it’s my favourite scene in the film. It’s a great scene, the music choice is perfect and the reaction he’s having just makes so much sense. It’s lovely seeing him truly happy for the first time as well, isn’t it?

As I’ve talked about, a lot of different suggestions have been made about there being a point in the film after which he is simply imagining everything that’s happening. I never talked about the one that I’m most inclined to agree with though, and that would be that it’s some time before he kills his mother. In the scene right before that, we have the “sixth sense” style reveal where he realises he was never in a relationship with the woman down the hall. We never see what happens, but it’s definitely implied that he may have killed her. So maybe it’s after this, or perhaps he was caught while inside the asylum getting the documents about his mother, after all we never see how he escaped the place. Either way, somewhere along the way just before the final act I think may be the point where it happens.

I’m not convinced though, it’s still most likely that the events of the films simply happened as presented. What’s undeniable though, is that everything from the chase sequence through to him standing above the crowd in that fantastic slow zoom out shot, plays out exactly like the kind of fantasies I frequently get lost in. I’ve always daydreamed, but as I have got older and become more disappointed with my situation in life they have definitely become more frequent and detailed. It’s another aspect of this breaking down of the barriers between reality and fantasy that I was talking about before. When I was younger I’d just imagine myself in a situation, now I’ll imagine the entire scenario that leads to such a situation playing out as I walk to work or something like that.

Now these fantasies or daydreams are all quite different, but they almost always tend to have me turning into some kind of important figure. Someone who people look up to, someone with great power or influence, or something like that. My speculation is that it’s some kind of unconscious coping mechanism to deal with the fact that I’m very low in the social hierarchy, by allowing myself to live as someone on the top in some area of life for a while. I don’t know, it’s not like it’s in my control these daydreams happen to me, so it really is just baseless speculation. Either way, I’m pretty certain that most people in a similar life situation as me experience something similar. And these daydreams get pretty weird, like sure in some cases I’m just a dictator or a king or something generic like that, but just as often the story will be much like the plot of the final act of this film.

After all, it’s pure catharsis watching the ending play out. He outruns and outsmarts two police detectives who’ve been harassing him throughout the film, he gets to go out on stage on the show he’s definitely fantasised about going on before, he gets to tell the whole world about his problems through that show, he gets revenge on the guy who humiliated him publicly, and then a literal personal army loots and burns the city and saves him from captivity before raising him above the crowd like a hero. The film goes from zero to one hundred very suddenly, given that he was just a jobless shut in before he put on the make-up. The way he reacts in that car scene, the one where White Room by Cream is playing, is probably exactly how I would react if one of my own elaborate daydreams were to actually start happening around me.

Of course that’s never happened, but I’ve certainly been thrust into crazy/ unexpected situations before and funnily enough my reaction is usually laughter. While on the topic of laughter, I thought how his condition was dealt with in the film (pseudobulbar effect, it’s a real condition) was really well done. Some of those early scenes where he looks like he’s not just physically pained by it but also humiliated are so hard to watch, I honestly felt so sad for him. His eyes are so expressive, in those scenes where he gets the laughter attacks you get that feeling that he is reminded that his life will never improve and that he’ll be stuck like that forever. Because while I don’t have any such condition, I know that in moments of physical weakness like when I get ill I’ll often find it harder to keep up the usual pretence that things will get better one day. It’s in those moments that you’re no longer able to lie to yourself.

It’s so nice how after he manages to shake off all the dead weight and crap that’s been dragging him down his whole life those laughing fits no longer look painful, he embraces them. On Murray’s show, in the police car, in the room with the psychiatrist at the very end, he finally sees the funny side to life. As corny as the line was, he really did begin to see his life as a comedy rather than a tragedy and he’s much better off for it. I wish I could do the same, I have moments where I can laugh at the absurdity of it all sure but they never last. Like how after Arthur kills the three train guys and it seems as if he finally has some life force back in the scene where he quits his job and smashes the punch clock, but it fades. Then again after the second therapist visit, but it fades. It always fades away, I don’t know what I can do.

The laughing was also used to great effect in the scene where he is at the comedy club the first time, where he’s taking notes. I think a lot of people simply read that scene as showing that he’s out of step with the rest of society, because he laughs at different points to everyone else. Like I’ve said about a few scenes now I think this is all true, but the scene has more to it as well that I haven’t seen anyone comment on yet. See I think it actually ties in quite well with the ending sequence in that it is further proof that Arthur is a man lost in fantasy. The scene is there to show that he doesn’t actually want to be a comedian at all, he doesn’t even like or find the stand up he goes to see to be funny. He’s just chosen comedy as the route to getting some attention and recognition.

I haven’t actually talked about this before on here, so there’s no post to link to for this one, but when I was a bit younger (maybe early teens) I also thought I wanted to be a comedian. My dad used to let me stay up late when I visited him and often we would watch stand up recordings because that’s the only good thing on TV around midnight. I probably didn’t even get half of the jokes, but there was something very alluring about the admiration the guy on stage would receive. I also think that showing Arthur being entirely unamused by the sex jokes is a really clever and tasteful way of implying that he’s probably a virgin/ romantically inexperienced.

Similarly to how he doesn’t really care about comedy as anything other than a means to an end, he doesn’t care at all about the protests and the clown face movement he inspires for anything other than that exact same reason. I thought it was really clever how they have him throw the mask he borrows during the chase scene straight into the trash as soon as the police officers are dealt with. They’ve outlived their usefulness. It’s just a perfect way to symbolise it, they’re just normalfags to him he couldn’t care less about their troubles. Most of the people in those protests, they’re just as likely to walk over him on the street as Thomas Wayne would be, fuck ’em.

I really can’t help but think that if not the director then some other important people on the team behind this film are /ourguys/, the film is just too anti-normie, it almost feels like we’re being pandered to. Take the first scene where he has the full costume and make-up on, as he walks down the hall and then later when he dances around the city and on those stairs. It can’t possibly be a coincidence that they chose a song by Gary Glitter to play during that sequence. I don’t think there’s a musician who is more hated by the general public, particularly here in the UK where they won’t even play his music on the radio, but he’s also hated in the US and anywhere where his music would have once charted. Which it did, he was as mainstream as you get once. A chart topper, society’s choice.

The song, Rock and Roll Part 2, is this really upbeat and energetic glam rock track, and it plays during the first scene where you see Arthur/ Joker truly comfortable and at ease with himself. He is the protagonist of the movie, so clearly the intention is that you should be happy for him during this scene, and that’s the song they choose. It’s just too perfect, and obviously I’m not pro-paedophile but I suppose just because I spend hours every day on 4chan I probably have unknowingly interacted with hundreds if not thousands of them over the years. This scene is a real “fuck you” moment for the character, after being beaten down and trod on by society, instead of hiding away (or crawling inside a fridge..) he walks out with his head held high. This song pisses off all the right people, that being basically everyone with some stock in the future.

In a better world perhaps I’d be just as infuriated as everyone else simply by hearing Gary Glitter’s name, but at this point I kind of enjoy the butthurt he causes. And you best believe the controversy was expected. You know what, maybe even the trauma he caused to his victims might mean they actually became decent rather unlike the mass of intolerably self interested normalfags you’ll encounter in any busy city in Europe or North America. Ok, maybe that’s a little too edgy. To clarify, paedophilia is one of the worst crimes imaginable and indeed it’s implied that Arthur himself is possibly a victim of it. He’s certainly a victim of violent abuse as a young child, and in my opinion severe mental abuse as well as I’ve explained.

In that scene though, when the song plays and he’s dancing down the stairs, he’s just so carefree and comfortable in his own skin at last. It’s empowering, if I’m being entirely honest with you. It feels wonderful, I was just beaming from the moment the song starts and you see him walk down the hall right until the end of the movie. It’s great how they express this transformation through dance as well, through his movement. The dance on the stairs is totally fluid because he’s completely comfortable in his own skin finally, it’s also in time with the music that plays over the scene so it’s vibrant and full of life. This is in contrast to the scene much earlier in the film when he does that weird jagged and stilted dance in that poorly lit bathroom after he kills the three guys who attack him on the train.

That earlier more awkward dance reminds me a little of how I might dance when I’m home alone or something, I really have to wonder how someone could have known to include this stuff. It’s not even really a dance, more just slowly contorting and twisting out of time with what’s happening around him. See “people like me”, we tend not to enjoy or feel very comfortable dancing. The idea of dancing in public, while others can see, may be terrifying but a lot of us are so repressed we still feel awkward or wrong doing it in total privacy. Because dance is the most instinctual and ancient kind of expression available to us, the most unsophisticated. People like me, people like us, we’re out of tune and at all times uncomfortable in our own skin. I’ve gradually become less like this, maybe I can dance a little more easily with no one around to see now, but that bathroom scene was immediately familiar to me.

It makes sense that after killing those guys, which is a liberating moment, he does this dance. There are a quite a few dance scenes, and each one becomes slightly less awkward and janky as the character himself slowly loses all reason to maintain the meek and pitiful demeanour he’s had his whole adult life. The dance just before he goes on stage with the intention of killing himself (meaning he’s lost any fear of judgement or repercussion) being the most graceful and serene of all of them. There’s just so much depth to this film, it really has taken me by surprise. I was expecting it would be enjoyable enough, and all the memes surrounding it would be amusing, but it’s actually really resonated with me. I really do need to go and see it a third time before it’s out of theatres.