#number one nihil hater

[queer-and-nerdy]

mind and heart are filled with thoughts of primo and secondo and terzo and copia... just like... them... like how they all internalized nihil's shit parenting...........

like how primo had to raise his brothers by himself because they deserved to have a loving childhood even if he didn't have one. like how he willingly took on all the responsibilities of raising a very young terzo and infant copia while dealing with a teenage/young adult secondo. like how he had to parent them from afar while he was touring, sometimes even bringing terzo and copia to be left in the care of a stage ghoul. like how he gave up his best years to single-handedly take care of them with little to no recognition. like how he attended every one of secondo and terzo’s performances during their papacy. like how he loved how strong and protective secondo became, yet hated his harshness and unkindness. like how he loved terzo's flamboyant and optimistic personality, yet hated how insecure it made him. like how he loved copia's dedication and tenacity, yet hated his fear of the world.

like how secondo only saw how much nihil looked down on him. like how he became bitter and miserable because he only focused on how little nihil loved him rather than how much primo loved him. like how he grew to hate and resent terzo because he could see how primo loved his younger brother but couldn't see that same love directed at himself since he thought he wasn't earning/deserving of it. like how he hated primo's touring and refused to join him because he'd rather choose to be alone than forced to be. like how he hated the idea of being ignored and passed off. like how secondo loved all of his brothers but didn't know how to show it because he was blinded by nihil's dislike. like how one time he lashed out at terzo, who then compared him to nihil and he "realized" just how much like his father he was, making him become colder to his brothers in order to "protect" them from his "bad genes." like how he was too afraid to commit to any relationships, platonic or romantic, because he thought he'd end up like nihil. like how he refused to have any children because he saw what it did to primo. like how proud he was of terzo's ascension/descension to papa but was too afraid to show it. like how he always defended and protected his brothers but didn't know how to truly show them the love they deserved.

like how terzo rarely batted an eye at nihil's dismissal because he knew he had primo's unconditional love and support. like how he felt the extremes of primo's selfless love and secondo's bitter resentment. like how the only reason he lasted as papa as long as he did was because primo and secondo stepped in to protect him from nihil. like how he grew up (and died) thinking that secondo hated him but never knew why. like how he always tried to be the perfect son for primo but had no idea what a "perfect" son would look like. like how he tried to dim his personality growing up so that primo would have less of "him" to worry about. like how insecure he was of himself because he was judged and ignored more often than not by those outside of his family circle.

like how copia loved all of his brothers since they were the only healthy family he had. like how the large age difference between him and primo (and secondo's lack of interest in raising a child) led him to lean on his mother and terzo more, which drove him apart from the older brothers. like how after primo, secondo, and terzo's deaths he received the full force of nihil's distaste after a lifetime of being shielded from it. like how he tries to channel his older brothers while performing but feels he can never live up to their standards. like how he clings onto his ghouls because they are the only family he has left. like how he tells them bedtime stories about his brothers and how much they cared and loved.

anywho.

[daz4i]

ik we always talk abt how ratio and aventurine are opposites when it comes to aeons (one wants to be seen and isn't, other is seen and hates it) but. it's also interesting to observe how they're opposites with people too. i think

ratio is a somewhat controversial public figure? but mostly well liked. he has some haters sure but his fans and appreciators are louder and more common. he grew up surrounded by people oohing and aahing over his achievements, always a part of a group

and yet. does he have any actual friends? 🤔 literally the only other playable character who has any voice lines about him atm is aventurine. it kinda seems like his only other friends are screwllum and maybe the trailblazer. the other geniuses don't pay much mind to him. iirc in that one keeping up with star rail video where he was announced to be free they mentioned barely knowing him. it's literally just screwllum

meanwhile, aventurine seems to be kind of hated. tbf, he IS a relatively high ranking member in the ipc so that's plenty reason for the average person to dislike him. not to mention his luck is bound to get anyone he's betting against to wish upon his death lol. and idk if that's how he is with just tb or if he's like that with everyone but he also doesn't seem to want to leave a good impression anyway. he grew up alone, quite literally had to kill all the other slaves in order to survive, and ofc, he is the last of his kind. always forced to be separated from others like him.

but. people in his life are generally okay with him. going by numbers, there are currently 7 characters who have voice lines about him. most of them are positive or at least show some form of care or familiarity. he has bonds whether he knows about them or not. people caring about him is why and how he got out of the nihility

and. this is one i'm p sure i have seen brought up before but i think it's important to mention. it doesn't seem like aventurine likes humanity as a whole that much (and can we really blame him for that after what he's been through 😭). but ratio loves humanity to the point of it being a defining characteristic of his, to the point of missing out on what was likely his dream before.

it's an interesting contrast. and it can even add a few layers to the bond between them, too. what it means for them to have it in the first place. how it affects each one of them, and the both of them together as a unit.

[fuglyjeans]

i feel like i need to write a video essay but my thoughts are still percolating

joker 2 thoughts so far (spoilers in red):

my initial reaction was positive, I was not bored like some are saying they were

the musical bits could have been done differently but for the most part, I enjoyed them. it made sense for this story. some of the best parts of the film were musical numbers

initially i really liked the plot, I thought it was a cool fuck you to everyone who misunderstood the first film. but on thinking a bit more about it, i think it would have been cooler to ignore the haters and focus on making a better movie. the meta-commentary is a zinger but it really sucks after a few seconds because then you remember wait, i was interested in this character and this worldbuilding tho? can we get back to that?

all the characters in both joker movies are incredibly flat, 1d portrayals. like literally everyone is mean or manipulative towards arthur. that worked for the first film since arthur was an unreliable narrator, it was fun to try to understand what was his nihilism and what was his actual lived reality.

i liked that the lines between serious and not serious were totally blurred and it was anyone's guess if something was corny bs, or actually believable. to me that reflects real life. because there genuinely are people who get shit on and kicked at every possible turn in their lives. i've met people like this. some of them seem "crazy" and i still don't know if they are or aren't lying about the things they claim but in the end it doesn't really matter because they need mental healthcare either way. ask me more about the specific stories if you're interested... I just think it's neat how Arthur reminds me of real life people.

however in Joker 2, this kind of doesn't work anymore. because the film is a lot more sympathetic towards arthur, it makes this demarcation between Arthur and Joker that I don't think existed in the first film. the very first scene in Joker 2 is a cartoon depicting Arthur in a literal battle with an evil doppelganger, who gets him into trouble... pronouncing Arthur as "the sane one" means all the reasons Joker went ham before must have been delusions. so, with every character being a complete tool towards Arthur still in this film, it doesn't make sense anymore. it doesn't feel like potentially part of his delusion, it just feels like lazy writing.

(spoiler) while I understand why they played Lee like they did, i think it's a massive missed opportunity to make her just another one of Arthur's abusers.

I have always read Arthur as a queer character. He is a guy who struggles to feel manly enough despite not really seeming all that interested in masculinity deep down. He is a guy who finds strength performance---the Joker persona is very camp, very drag queen to me. I've always seen Arthur as potentially trans, bisexual, and/or gay...

(spoiler)...So when I heard Gaga was going to play Harley I couldn't help but get fucking excited. because Harley is a bisexual character. Gaga is a bisexual woman who has always paid homage to queer culture and drag. Maybe I'm just projecting but I think this could have been SO SO SO more interesting and fun if they'd done a traditional Harley, who genuinely loves Arthur and isn't just using him and lying to him... I think it could have brought out more facets of Arthur's character and taken the story somewhere we haven't been before. idk maybe i'm delulu but that's what I wanted

i keep thinking about Alien: Resurrection, because I loved what that entry in the Alien franchise added. that was a movie that said fuck this tired old Ripley journey, it's over, it's been done, we are going to throw body horror and species mixing and ridiculous action scenes and also Ripley is gonna fuck a queen alien just cause and also she's going to have lesbian subtext with Winona Ryder. because we already made 3 serious Alien movies and there's no point retreading, let's do something new and silly with this material. THAT'S the tone I wanted out of Joker 2. but, most people hate Resurrection, so maybe that's just me and my preference.

(spoiler) overall while I don't think Harley needed more screen time per se,(this is a Joker movie, not a Gaga mv, it's about Arthur first and foremost) I do think she was so flat and boring and needed more of a backstory to her.

(spoiler) the ending made sense to me. it didn't upset me. it was a good anti-franchise bs from Todd Phillips... like he kneecapped the Joker Movie Universe before it could go on for decades like the MCU. good on that. Arthur's death also makes perfect sense for him and his character. it's sad but it's what would realistically happen. bro was never a criminal mastermind

ok bye i have to get ready for work!

[lonestarss]

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR HSR SELF INSERT... I DO WANT TO KNOW SOO BAD!!!

okay so i don't fully have him figured out yet but here's a brain dump of everything i have for him so far

imaginary/nihility; uses either a sickle or a scythe in combat, i haven't decided yet

from penacony + halovian! he clipped his torso wings for reasons i haven't figured out yet, probably an extreme body mod

i'm going for a big "fallen angel" thing with him. falling from a grace you never had etc etc

he spent too much time in the dreamscape when he lived there and now seemingly walks around in a constant daydream

galaxy ranger in a "hero for fun" kinda way (like zhihao but slightly more committed. also omg one punch man reference)

number 2 ipc hater. it's one of the few things ae fully take seriously.

sometimes, their daydreams play out in real life via their imaginary energy forming holograms of sorts. no ae can't control this and yes it always happens at the worst times.

he has sharp teeth and glowing eyes. for funzies.

he's very sensitive to loud noises, which makes him sad because He Wants To Use A Gun, Dammit

they want boothill sooo bad and it's sooooo cringe.

boothill: you should be addicted to shutting the fudge up.

hsr!mabe: haha, you wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid

boothill: and so what if i do?

(vine boom noises) (alarm sound effect)

[konu-d]

Introductions

My name is Konu. I’m a virtual streamer, digital artist, and Live2d rigger. I’m half Filipino and Chinese, and the theme I currently have with my streamer models are based on Chinese mythology. Right now, I’m a hulijing.

Links

Youtube

Stream Archive

Twitch

Instagram

Redbubble

Bluesky

Commissions: Planning…

Portfolio: Work in progress…

TAGS

Here are some of the tags I use the most often:

#konumodi_art = This is where I put all my art! There will usually be additional tags with this one depending on if I'm doing art for a fandom or an original work. #crow's blablablah = This is where I put my writing. The old man got an ao3 account and I'm word vomiting all over it :DDD

My OCs

#ayumu fluture = My purple son, I’m his number 1 hater thanks (I love him, actually, but I must make him suffer) #sartre (hsr oc) = My red son with clinical nihilism, I haven’t made much for him yet BUT I WILL SOON #kazue = My F/GO mastersona. You'll occasionally see me tag #mizoroge fuhai as well, which is his deadname.

#acesius = My blue son for Saint Spell’s Love Guide to the Magical Student’s Spellbook! A Clockheart, which is essentially a tsukumogami, of an agimat lmao He’s eternally suffering☆

RULES

Some simple rules. I'm sure you're all aware of the importance of boundaries, right?

No homophobia or general hate for others! I'm not aware of every internet controversy/drama/etc., and I have enough going on both in lore and in real life as it is. Please don't come to me just to discuss this kind of stuff.

Please be 18 years old or above when interacting with me! I am not comfortable with the presence of minors within my space. I'm sure some of you are cool, but come back when you're older, okay?

I'm not sure what other rules I have yet considering this isn't a streaming thing where you can talk to me in real time, but I'll probably figure some things out. This is Tumblr, after all.

[00reg00]

(from 25/10/2022) i went to school looking like this

No regrets

(31/10/2022) finally Halloween, i been preparing this since September

Ghost Tumblr are y'all proud?

[orphicnatural]

Rating Exorcisms and Spells on Supernatural as if I am Grading Them on Their Latin

Basically, this is just a review of some Latin incantations on the show.

Disclaimer: Latin is a hard language. I’ve been studying it for 6 years and I am by no means an expert, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. That being said I do have a background in Latin and Linguistics so I do have a good idea of how the language works. I’ll include the Latin, my translation, and then my opinion on each incantation.

Here’s some general background information about the structure of Latin for any of those who are interested:

Latin typically is a Subject-Object-Verb language (as opposed to English which is a SVO language) but it does have free word order so the words can be rearranged into any order

Nouns and Adjectives decline in terms of case, number, and gender (aka each noun/adjective has 10* forms)

Verbs are conjugated with person, number, tense, and mood (aka each verb has 120+* forms)

word choice is important because of the relatively limited lexicon so many words hold several meanings that depend on context

1. Shortened Exorcism

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica, ergo draco maledicte, ut ecclesiam tuam secura, tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos!"

We exorcize you, all foul spirits, all satanic powers, all hellish enemy attacks, all legions, all congregations and devilish sects, therefore the evil serpent, in order to make you serve liberty in your secure church, we ask you, hear us!

The classic (shortened) exorcism that appears a few times throughout the show. Generally a good message for an exorcism it makes sense. Technically all of ‘omnis... diabolica’  should all be in the accusative case (not the nominative) to agree with te ‘you’, and the number (sg/pl) is inconsistent so a few points off. Good use of the vocative for draco maledicte, though! The purpose clause at the end of the exorcism is a little clunky, but they did use the proper ut + subjunctive structure. Extra point for being a legitimate exorcism but minus a point for being Medieval Latin bc I’m a hater.

6/10

2. Rowena’s Curses in 10x16

Torture and a violent death, torturing

Now this first one just doesn’t quite make sense: it is not a complete sentence so I am confused by the use of the participle at the end and it’s case. It does seem to be effective though, Olivette sure is getting tortured.

2/10

Your fate is a journey without end towards nothing. 

I like this one! For some reason all captions/scripts write iter sine as one word not sure why? Only thing I would change is use nihil for ‘nothing’ instead of nullum (lit. ‘no things’). (Could also put est at the end of the sentence but that’s more of a style choice.) Not sure how this incantation turns someone into a hamster specifically but a solid curse nonetheless!

 8/10

3. Belphegor’s Spell

Spirits of hell, souls having risen from the infernal pit i confine you within the boundaries

Solid translation for someone who is not familiar with the language. Since hell is singular, inferorum should instead be inferni. I would have either used an ablative absolute (which we don’t have in English) or a relative clause in the first part making it animi inferorum spirito [ex] abysso surrecti ‘sptirits of hell, having been risen from the pit…’ or animi infernorum cui spiritus abyssi surrecti ‘spirtis of hell whose souls have been raised from the pit’. Also I would use a different verb than defigo, maybe something more like coherceo/conpesco. 

7/10

4. Dean Summoning Death

I call upon you now, Death.  I enchant you in my power, now and forever.

Pretty baller summoning spell if you ask me. Personally, it added to the experience to know what exactly Dean was doing before the spell worked. Since this is a direct invocation of Death, Mortem should be in the vocative (Mors). Nice use of the idiomatic in aeternum for ‘forever’. 

9.5/10

5. Sam’s Warding Spell

Bind together these powerful warding sigils. Renew them. Strengthen them. Save us all.

This actually reads like real Latin; Latin looooooves using pronouns (has, eas). It’s all in the imperative (mood used for commands): sounds good, very direct. Extra points for being the first correct classical pronunciation of the Latin <v> in the whole show (<v> makes a /w/ sound in Latin)! Excellent Job Samwitch! (apparently Jared took Latin in high school so good job buddy)

11/10

all screencaps from here and all captions and translations by me

special thanks to @casisalamp for making sure this all made sense :)

[bonnierosebryan]

Medusa

ink on A4 paper

The Myth of Medusa: 

Victim Blaming, Nihilism, and the Personification of Female Rage

In Greek mythology Medusa ("guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon monster,  generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers upon her hideous face would turn to stone. Most sources say she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.

The hero Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena (Medusa’s #1 hater). During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon (who had raped her). When Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body. Perseus used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon, until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion. 

A Fiction Based on Fact:

A number of early classics scholars interpreted the myth of the Medusa as a quasi-historical - "based on or reconstructed from an event”...  According to Joseph Campbell:The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that "the Hellenes overran the goddess's chief shrines" and "stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks," the latter being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane.That is to say, there occurred in the early 13th century B.C. an actual historic rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued by the conscious mind.

Beautiful or Hideous:

While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In an ode written in 490 BC Pindar already speaks of "fair-cheeked Medusa" 

Victim Blaming in Medusa’s Myth: In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," but because Poseidon had raped her in Athena's temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned.  (WTF?!) 

Nihilism:

Medusa has sometimes appeared as representing notions of scientific determinism and nihilism, especially in contrast with romantic idealism. Attempts to avoid looking into her eyes represent avoiding the ostensibly depressing reality that the universe is meaningless.

 Jack London uses Medusa in this way in his novel The Mutiny of the Elsinore:  “ Man, awake, is compelled to seek a perpetual escape into Hope, Belief, Fable, Art, God, Socialism, Immortality, Alcohol, Love. From Medusa-Truth he makes an appeal to Maya-Lie."

A Symbol of Feminine Rage:

In the 20th century, feminists reassessed Medusa's appearances in literature and in modern culture, including the use of Medusa as a logo by fashion company Versace. 

The book Female Rage: Unlocking Its Secrets, Claiming Its Power by Mary Valentis and Anne Devane notes that "When we asked women what female rage looks like to them, it was always Medusa, the snaky-haired monster of myth, who came to mind ... In one interview after another we were told that Medusa is 'the most horrific woman in the world' ... [though] none of the women we interviewed could remember the details of the myth." 

Medusa's visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a feminist journal called Women: A Journal of Liberation in their issue one, volume six for 1978. The cover featured the image of the Gorgon Medusa by Froggi Lupton, which the editors on the inside cover explained "can be a map to guide us through our terrors, through the depths of our anger into the sources of our power as women.”

"The Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of our own rage.��  - Emily Erwin Culpepper,  Woman of Power magazine (1986)

[jillmckenzie1]

I Started a Joke

“So, when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your head where the screaming is unbearable, remember there’s always madness. Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away…forever.”

That dialogue is from The Killing Joke, alternately the best and worst story about The Joker ever written. On its face, the story is simple. The Clown Prince of Crime has kidnapped Commissioner Gordon, and his plan is to drive Gordon mad, proving to both him and the Batman that anyone can lose their mind and descend into insanity. All it takes is one bad day. The best stories seem to be simple, but a little investigation reveals hidden complexity.

That complexity is why The Joker, a character originally created in a 1940 issue of Batman, still endures. He’s appeared in hundreds of comics, video games, artwork, and other media. It’s film, however, where the character has truly come to life; no wonder actors love playing him, as you can take him in an infinite number of different directions. Cesar Romero played him as a campy clown with a painted-over mustache. Jack Nicholson played him as a peacocking narcissist. Heath Ledger played him as an urban terrorist without a past. Jared Leto played him as a deeply annoying Juggalo. Hell, Mark Hamill might have delivered the definitive portrayal of him as a mischievous agent of chaos.

There’s a single kernel of truth within the heart of The Joker: giggling nihilism. To him, nothing matters. Not love, not death, not responsibility or decency. It’s all a twisted joke, and he’s the only man who can see that. The right portrayal of him depends on empathy and fearlessness, while never forgetting that core fundamental concept. With Todd Phillips’ new film, Joker, we have an up-to-the-moment take on the character made with skill, intelligence, and no small amount of confusion.

You can’t blame Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) for feeling a little crazy. He’s got a screaming head full of mental issues, barely managed by numerous medications. One issue that can’t quite be managed is the laughter. Specifically, when he feels stressed, he’ll erupt in a high-pitched cackle at the most inopportune times. Arthur carries a card that explains his condition and urges a modicum of compassion, but nobody seems to care.

Compassion is in short supply in Gotham City. A garbage strike has deposited thousands of pounds of trash throughout the city. Economic catastrophes, crime, and income inequality have transformed Gotham into a simmering powderkeg, and all it takes is one man to light the fuse. Who would have thought that man would be Arthur?

Certainly not him—at least not initially. He makes a meager living working as a street clown and dreams of becoming a famous stand-up comedian. If things really worked out, maybe he could even meet his idol Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), a glib talk show host. For now, that doesn’t seem likely, particularly since he needs to care for his mother Penny (Frances Conroy), a woman suffering from profound psychological problems.

All Arthur needs is something to believe in, someone to give him a chance. There’s the slimmest thread of hope when he meets Sophie (Zazie Beetz), the pretty single mom who lives down the hall. But then there’s the gun he receives from a cruel co-worker, the social worker who informs him that budget cuts have removed access to his medication, the mayoral campaign of business titan Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), and a pack of Wall Street bros who just won’t leave him alone. Up against all of that and more, all Arthur can do is laugh.

I still kind of can’t believe Joker even exists. Consider that we have a film about Batman’s greatest nemesis that only briefly portrays Batman as a frightened 7-year-old boy.* The main character is played by Joaquin Phoenix, one of the most talented actors on the planet. The film is directed by the guy who made The Hangover trilogy. That simple narrative would indicate a clusterf–k of epic proportions, no? No, as this simple story hides complexities.

Director Todd Phillips deserves credit since he’s made a superhero movie that’s less an action movie and more a gritty character study. His film shares DNA with 70’s classics such as Taxi Driver and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His Gotham City is a decaying metropolis brimming over with despair, and we can feel Phillips luxuriating in gorgeous sleaze. From a technical perspective, Phillips has made an excellent film, one with strong cinematography, creepy editing, and (mostly) solid pacing.

Before we go too much further, I can hear you thinking, Hold up there, hoss. Should we really be taking a movie about a cartoon clown seriously? We should because The Joker can be interpreted as a trickster archetype or a means of blowing up a corrupt economic system a la Occupy Wall Street. I even read an interesting argument about how The Joker represents a Nietzschean superman who creates his own rules and rejects conventional morality through a will to power.

That’s great and all, but the script by Phillips and Scott Silver is frustratingly inconsistent. If we’re going to have a character study where a man is broken by an unfeeling society, we should have a series of moments plotting Arthur’s fall and rise. The path should look “insane,” but in hindsight, the pieces should fit together and feel inevitable. There should be a moment or moments where Arthur chooses to be The Joker. Instead, it feels like Arthur’s character is yanked all over the place in a crazy-quilt of trauma. Yet speaking of inconsistency, there’s a sequence late in the film where Arthur achieves self-actualization, and I thought, “There he is. There’s The Joker.” When the script works, it works. Their screenplay does have a number of clever details. I particularly enjoyed Thomas Wayne portrayed as a Trumpian tycoon entering politics** and Arthur’s spiral caused by conservative budget-cutting. There are a few moments of humor, but only a few. You’d think that a movie about The Joker would be…y’know, funny.

I literally cannot imagine any scenario in which Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t receive an Academy Award nomination. He’s that good as Arthur, and it starts with Phoenix losing over 50 pounds and transforming himself into an emaciated scarecrow. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen him twitching, dancing spasmodically, and laughing. His performance, thankfully, is more than a collection of tics. Phoenix lets us into Arthur, showing us a man who might not necessarily be good, but the potential is there. He’s mesmerizing, and he’s ably supported by a number of strong actors. I’m pleased that, between this and The Irishman, Robert De Niro seems to be on a career upswing. I was also highly amused to briefly see Marc Maron, a noted hater of superhero movies, showing up as Murray Franklin’s producer. The great Brian Tyree Henry has a strong scene as a clerk in a certain asylum you might be familiar with.

I can’t say that Joker is a great film. Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix, and the cast and crew have made a very good movie that’s sure to polarize audiences and, like Fight Club, is sure to be misunderstood. Is it the right movie for today, for times that feel like we’re tipping into the abyss? Perhaps, and perhaps we always feel that way. Near the end of The Killing Joke, The Joker is pleading with Batman, begging The Dark Knight to understand his point of view. He says, “It’s all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for…it’s all a monstrous demented gag! So why can’t you see the funny side? Why aren’t you laughing?” How does Bats respond? “Because I’ve heard it before…and it wasn’t funny the first time.”

      *The nerd part of me got upset here. “If Bruce Wayne is only seven here, while The Joker is, let’s say 40, then we have a big-ass age discrepancy! Figure after his parents are killed, Bruce spends the next 15 years going to school & doing pre-Batman stuff. If he dons the cape when he’s 22, Bruce is going up against a Joker who’s pushing 60! The Joker should never be concerned about prostate health!” Then I thought, “Relax, it’s just a goddamn movie.”

**A smart friend of mine said that nothing in movies is an accident. Look at how two of the three Wall Street bros on the subway are dead ringers for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

  from Blog https://ondenver.com/i-started-a-joke/