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‘He is a psychopath’: has the 2019 Joker gone too far?

Todd Phillips’s take has been mired in controversy, but it’s not the first time the character has reflected society

“Is it just me or is it getting crazier out there?” Joaquin Phoenix’s proto-Joker Arthur Fleck asks his psychologist in the new Joker movie. The real answer is both. Fleck is beset with a host of personal issues, but the world “out there” is a powder keg of lawlessness, inequality, corruption, cuts and all-round despair. Joker’s story is set around the early 1980s, but it consciously chimes with our own increasingly crazy present. “These are tough times,” the psychologist acknowledges. She might as well turn and wink to the camera.

It’s no surprise that 2019’s Joker – while set to be a triumph, critically and commercially – has raised concerns over its narrative. An early, leaked version of the script, plus the portrayal of Phoenix’s character as a sad young man beset by a host of personal issues (mental health problems, past trauma, failing comedy career, loneliness) has led to the film being aligned with so-called “incel” culture (involuntarily celibate men who are angry and misogynistic).

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