Joker's Billion Dollar Laugh

A movie that shouldn't have 'made it'--or even got made as it was--will have earned a billion bucks this week. And every expert who passed on producing it should have his or her head on a plate.

'Nobody knows anything' in the movie business, as William Goldman said. Too true. But for those with the money, art's about odds. And the odds against Joker amounting to significant numbers were high. The script was a grim one, an origin story unlike any other Marvel movie. Worse still, it was a 'onesie' with no plans for a sequel. The director was best known for his Hangover films. Joaquin Phoenix, though good, was no box office draw. And the budget was...$53 million.

Well, the punchline to that is a kick in the teeth of know-it-alls and blowhards who live for sure things when there's only one in art's uncertain world: now and then bold works of absolute integrity speak to the people as no one else has. And when they do--watch out.

The theaters wouldn't be packed if Joker resonated only with 'incels' or the down and out. It's a portrait of overdue rage at a System that serves the wealthy one percent. And the rich get richer while the poor get you-know-what. Arthur Fleck's example is extreme--he isn't simply pushed over the brink, he's beaten to within an inch of his life and mocked beyond endurance. But this failed clown speaks to us as Howard Beale did in Network.

99% percent are getting mad-as-heller daily. And it isn't that they want their own Jeffrey Epstein islands or seven-figure book deals for novels they've slaved on for years or their own stars on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. What they want is shown in a pair of scenes in Joker--where he cries out that all he ever needed was a little respect and a chance. And what does he get? In the first scene, he gets a hard punch in the mouth; in the second, a roasting on national TV.

Any viewer, regardless of income, can thrill to the movie's best scenes: Arthur Fleck, in full Joker makeup and dress, dancing triumphantly down those steep Bronx steps...and the poor the 1 percent call clowns rioting in the streets.

Anyone who's been blocked or rejected, shunned or disrespected, can enjoy a silent cheer when Arthur stops clowning around and strikes back.