User blog:DragonDude83/PE Removal: Joker (2019)

Oh my gosh, a version of Joker that doesn’t qualify as Pure Evil! This is a formality, but I’m here to make sure that Joker (2019) is put under the "Never Again" list.

Why He Doesn’t Qualify
Arthur Fleck has had a very crappy life, from being abused by his adopted, unstable mother and her boyfriend to being diagnosed with a mental disorder and being cut off financially from any treatment. He was given a gun by a so-called friend, Randall and was fired from being a clown when the gun fell out of his clown getup in a children’s hospital. When three Wall Street brokers were harassing a young woman at a subway, Arthur was laughing uncontrollably due to his mental condition. The brokers beat him up until he used the gun given to kill one in self defense. He killed the other two, with the last one done in cold blood. After finding out that Thomas Wayne is not his father and that he was adopted and abused, you can’t help but feel bad for Arthur. He’s smothered his mother to death with a pillow and has brutally killed Randall in cold blood, but you can’t say they didn’t deserve it. Also, after killing Randall, Arthur lets Gary live.

Another thing that should be considered is the world around the story being a crapsack world. It’s built around the rich vs. the struggling poor, with everyone trying to make due, especially with Arthur taking care of, and genuinely loving, his mother before he found out about her past. Eventually, Arthur Fleck has ceased to exist, and Joker was born. If anything, Joker is more or less a dark half or alter ego of Arthur. I can’t say that he’s just as evil as Joker (Nolanverse), because he has shown a pathological need to be accepted, despite being mentally ill.

Final Verdict
Cut. I know some of us wanted to see a PE from Joaquin Phoenix since Commodus (Gladiator), but this is pretty much as sympathetic as you would feel for any version of Joker.