[D66] ‘Joker’ tells the truth about mental illness and its long overdue

Fri Oct 25 13:54:13 CEST 2019

http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/shouldnt-fear-joker/

BLARB
BLOG // LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
Los Angeles Review of Books

Why We Shouldn’t Fear Joker

    Essays Film Reviews

By Chris Yogerst

10/10/2019	

[...]

Those who take the time to see Joker will find that it isn’t the
ultra-violent juggernaut some have anticipated. Instead of being
action-driven like most superhero films, Joker is a nuanced look at
mental illness and the impact of trauma in a society that prefers to
look the other way. The film is a throwback in style to 1970s filmmaking
and has direct nods to both Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy
(1980), which Robert De Niro alluded to in a recent interview. Viewers
may also see some comparison to Network (1976), the prophetic film about
a television personality taking his anger out on the world with his
contagious line “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

In Joker, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is mad as hell and has very good reason
to be. Society has failed him. Nobody took his concerns seriously. Fleck
was seeing a social worker, but the city cut funding for his services
and medications. Fleck isn’t stupid, though he has suffered deep
traumatic experiences that have shaped his life. He knows he needs help,
but that assistance falls short at every turn. There is nothing
fantastical, alluring, or glamorous about it. This Joker isn’t funny,
suave, or cool in any way.

Once Fleck snaps, we cannot help but be reminded of all the times his
violence could have been prevented. We often hear talk about calling out
red flags of instability, though it doesn’t happen often enough. If this
becomes common practice, tragedies like the shooting in Aurora can be
avoided. Certainly, the victims and families associated with such crimes
don’t need any reminders about that. However, there are many out there
that still do. Fleck is told unequivocally by his social worker, “they
[city officials] don’t care about people like you.” Anyone who has
worked with or around the mental health field understands the stark
truth in this scene.

Fleck doesn’t hurt anyone during the first half of the film. “Hurt
people, hurt people,” is a line you may hear from a mental health
professional. That’s exactly what Fleck is, a hurt person who has
endured great trauma throughout his life. He doesn’t just fall into a
vat of toxic sludge and go crazy; he was molded by a society that could
have molded him into something else. Both Uslan and Warner Bros. hope
this film will spark discussion, the deluge of press coverage is proof
that it has. To some critics’ dismay, Joker is a cold tale about the
social and cultural isolation created by individual trauma. When
audiences see the complexity of Fleck’s trauma history, and how society
responds to it, they will not be surprised by his trajectory. Joker
works to draw attention to the ripple effects of trauma.

Just before the Joker premiere in Hollywood, director Todd Philips told
the audience, “I think it’s time to let the film speak for itself.”
Simple, yet revelatory, because films can and should speak for
themselves. Our society often gets revved up about popular culture it
hasn’t seen or knows nothing about — always eager to throw down over
ill-informed presuppositions. After watching The Hunt get effectively
blacklisted, it’s all that much more important to let films speak before
making assumptions about them. None of this is to say that concern over
violence is overstated, but we should be more cognizant of the root
causes such a general lack of funding and support for mental health.

Instead of pushing the crime and murder off of our screens, maybe we
should instead work to rid it from our culture. That way, when movies
reflect our world, we will be looking at a much better image flickering
back at us.

Chris Yogerst is assistant professor of communication at the University
of Wisconsin – Milwaukee whose writing has appeared in The Washington
Post and The Hollywood Reporter. His next book about the 1941 Senate
investigation into motion picture propaganda is due out in 2020.
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On 25-10-19 11:13, A.OUT wrote:
> ‘Joker’ tells the truth about mental illness and its long overdue
> By
> Julie Anne Pattee
> thestar.com
> 3 min
> View Original
> 
> “What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society who
> abandons him and treats him like crap? — What you deserve.”
> 
> These chilling lines, delivered by actor Joaquin Phoenix in the new film
> “Joker,” made me burst into a smile so big and so bright I’m sure
> everyone in the theatre was warmed by its glow.
> 
> The man on my left was chewing popcorn with his mouth open and slurping
> his drink like an attention seeking 5-year-old. The couple to my right
> was cuddling in a way that made me feel more single than usual, and the
> sole of one of my boots had torn off, making me stressed about my walk
> home. But none of this mattered anymore.
> 
> Finally, here was the much-needed righteous indignation that had been
> conspicuously absent from any recent film about madness I’ve seen. Here
> was a movie that said, loudly and clearly, exactly what needs to be
> said, which is: screw the just-go-get-help discourse that’s been
> dominating our discussions about mental illness. Because things are not
> all right. The system is really broken.
> 
> This was a movie that was making me feel understood, and I didn’t
> realize how much I needed that.
> 
> When the words “Observation Room,” appeared in big, bold letters on the
> wall of the hospital room where the Joker bangs his head, in gestures
> suggestive of autistic stimming, I almost wanted to break into the
> chorus of “hallelujah.”
> 
> Although we are outraged over their use with prisoners, no one seems to
> care that isolation rooms, commonly called observation rooms, are still
> a standard part of treatment for mental illness in many Canadian
> hospitals, although they are inhumane and studies have repeatedly shown
> they can make mental illness worse.
> 
> There’s a poster hanging in the Joker’s social worker’s office that
> reads: “It’s normal to feel trapped.”
> 
> Is it really?
> 
> Or is it just normal for people like me?
> 
> No one really listens to him or cares about what happens him. He can’t
> get his medication adjusted, and eventually, his barely effective
> services get cut. All stuff many people would describe as a normal part
> of being a mental health patient.
> 
> Before I saw the film, I worried it would make a false association
> between mental illness and violence. The myth that mentally ill people
> are dangerous threats to society is one of the most harmful stereotypes
> out there. Studies have repeatedly shown the rates of violence are about
> the same in the general population as they are with mental health patients.
> 
> But what the movie does quite brilliantly is make it clear that contrary
> to popular belief, anger and violence are not symptoms of any mental
> illness. Rather, they are normal reactions to a lifetime spent being
> treated like an outcast, ignored, taken advantage of, disbelieved,
> bullied and abused.
> 
> The film shows you what it’s like to live in this world when you are
> different.
> 
> When your social skills, emotional reactions and/or behaviour are
> severely impaired, you’re marked off as someone who is destined for the
> bottom of the heap. Your disability essentially means that you can’t
> play the game, so you will never be able to manoeuvre past all the
> people who see you as easy prey.
> 
> One of the Joker’s most troublesome afflictions is a condition that
> causes him break into uncontrollable laughter. His odd behaviour is only
> a problem because people think he’s faking it or using it as an excuse.
> Being misunderstood and disbelieved is something people who live with
> mental and/or neurological disorders, often described as “invisible
> illnesses,” experience every. single. day.
> 
> It’s a very strange and very wonderful feeling to see your life
> reflected on the big screen for the very first time. I walked home in my
> broken shoe, making loud flapping noises and knowing I was bothering all
> the normal people around me. But it just didn’t seem to matter so much
> anymore.
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