Well, I accidentally found the review of Joker that to date has disturbed me the most, and unfortunately it’s local: Suzette Smith for Portland Mercury. I sort of wish I had been scrolling too fast through Twitter to catch it.
At the risk of hyperbole, Joker might represent a new approach to popular cinema: This is a movie that works both for people who see it to luxuriate in the fearsome power of the Joker’s violence, and those who will instead see the character as pitiable. The fact that Joker works for both has me wondering if, going forward, more films will abandon a singular viewpoint. Phillips’ approach feels like a perfect fit for our current, polarized culture.
This would be a singularly terrible thing for movies to do. We don’t live in a world where we can afford not to have a point of view, or, worse, some sort of amoral shrug. Both-sidesism as a moviemaking style only enables and emboldens bad sides.