Joker. You remember that supervillain origin story? Yeah, it was out in theaters pretty recently. The one with that scary dude from Gladiator. Not Russell Crowe. The other guy. Yeah, you remember it.
What was it about, though? Can you remember that? If you’ve forgotten, haven’t seen the film, or can’t be bothered to reach any conclusions for yourself and want to posit someone else’s view as your own, then I have the article for you. No, I haven’t had a bad day. This is sunny-side up cynicism.
Joker director Todd Phillips is certainly well placed to offer his take on what this latest comic book escapade was about. After all, he did make the thing. Now, with the film’s home video release, Phillips has provided a director’s commentary which sheds new light on a theme he thinks audiences may have missed, and it’s not necessarily one you’d expect.
If I had to drill down on one overarching theme for me, it’s about the power of kindness and a lot of people miss that. I think if you don’t see that you either don’t have a soul or you’re being reductive to make up for your own struggles in that area. But, really, to me, that’s where it started from and there are other things in the movie like lack of love, the lack of empathy in society, and childhood trauma, but the power of kindness really runs through this film.
Of course, kindness is almost entirely absent from Joker. The absence of kindness and the consequences life without love has on society, that I can get behind. But the power of kindness? Sorry Todd, this isn’t A Christmas Carol.
The far stranger part of his commentary is where he says people who don’t see the kindness in the film have no souls, or are trying to compensate for their struggles in that area. Huh? I did read that right, yes? Guess I don’t have a soul.
Hopefully that quotation is libelous because it’s a very strange thing to say. Anyway, benefit of the doubt and all, right? If Joker 2 isn’t a Pixar-animated classic about the little supervillain that could, I’ll be making phone calls. My soul has a right to be heard.
