Villain Therapy: JOKER

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Alan, I love how you said “it didn’t glorify it, it exposed it.” This is the essence of the film.

The stairs in the movie are clear metaphor to his sanity. Early on in the movie you see him slowly and with difficulties climbing up the stairs to sanity, and then later on happily dancing down the stairs to madness. Showing how it's so much easier to just let go.

The joker really nailed how it feels to live with mental illness.. there is this sentence in his notebook:"The worst thing about living with a mental illness is that others expect you to act like you don't" THAT hits sooo hard..

My husband is a psychotic schizophrenic and, after five years of knowing my family, finally "came out " as such to them at Thanksgiving. My uncle, our host, did the same thing I did when he told me, and became interested and asked follow-up questions about what he sees and hears to understand his world better. My husband now feels comfortable with my family because they know how his mind works and don't see him as a monster.

Joker is the film embodiment of the quote "art is to comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable."

This movie makes me think of the saying “ it takes a village to raise a child” but the other half of it that people don’t remember is “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth”

One of my favorite visual metaphors is how he slowly struggles to climb up the stairs every day, but going down is effortless, just as how much easier it was for him to give in to his violent urges instead of trying to be better.

The fact that Joaquin himself has experienced so much trauma and hurt in his life helps you know WHY his performance is so perfect

As a musician I love the fact that the score was made before the filming, and the film was built on the music.

“A person not embraced by their tribe will burn it down to feel its warmth.” This quote came into my mind when Mr. Decker talked about Arthur not having a tribe.

its such a shame that people have so many stigmas against people with mental illness. As someone who went in for severe depression to some help places, meeting people with bipolar and schizo really made me realize how messed up that stigma is. So many of them were awesome and wonderful people who were so attentive to others and really wanted to connect with people. They were the most genuine people i’ve met. I didnt live in the area most of them were from, so after a week and after being released, I haven’t seen them or talked to them since, but I can genuinely say I miss them so much. So much talent, so many funny and great personalities, so many faces I’ll never forget who probably helped me through that time of my life more than the therapists ever could.

If you've battled bipolar, you know exactly what the laugh-crying feeling is like. All intense emotions all at once. You want to scream, laugh, and cry hysterically all at the same time.

I am a social worker who has worked in community mental health as a case manager as well as a therapist, both inpatient and outpatient, for low income communities relying predominantly on Medicaid and sliding fee scale services. The scene where the social worker says, "They don't give a (expletive) about people like you, Arthur" hit so hard because I have crossed paths with so many populations that are fighting to scrape by and all they want is the medication that barely helps them feel stable. I ended up getting a tattoo of Phoenix's Joker on my forearm and it opens so many conversations about this feeling of abandonment and discrimination. Now I also just love the Joker in general so the fact that they used Arthur Fleck to have this conversation about mental health was genius and I may be one of the few who thinks it doesn't take away from the overall Joker character at all. We can be fairly certain at the end of this movie that this story is one of MANY of Joker's origin stories, by his own admission. Then again, I think social workers have a dark sense of humor that helps them appreciate movies like this. Or maybe its just me.

I love how you are clearly showing the difference between mental illness and violence, it’s something that needs to be destigmatized!

I never felt like showing mental illness in villains implied that mental illness leads to villainy. I always interpreted it the other way around - it promotes compassion for the villain because of their mental illness.

As someone on Medicaid, thank you so much for mentioning how hard it is to get mental health help on it! It's almost impossible to find help and no one ever mentions that

I love the analogy you have about that desperate need for a male connection. That explains his obsession with Batman so well. It really shines on how well this movie was done

I have not seen Joker but I did just noticed that one guy who's nice to him is a character played by an actor with dwarfism who isn't the butt of a joke and isn't a fantasy creature, is just a regular character. Can we just appreciate how rare that is? (I haven't seen the film, granted, so i can't say if his height does go on to be the butt of a joke)

Thanks so much for this video! I am diagnosed with Bipolar 1 and at an acting class once I wrote and performed a silent scene about a character waiting for a bus after a tough breakup. I had the character be sad and then when she heard "sweet dreams" by eurythmics she started dancing. Some smart a** in the class told me that "normal people don't experience emotions like that" and that my character was too "manic" which ngl hurt like hell because I already to fight to justify my existence in mainstream society but to not be "real" enough for costars is what took the cake. mind you I didn't tell anyone in that class about my diagnosis so it just goes to show how much stigma there is surrounding mood disorders even in the entertainment industry, and I've had acting coaches tell me repeatedly that I can only play villains because my portrayal of characters and my emotional range was not "realistic" for "normal" people. i really wish that there was more understanding of people with mental illness as well as neurodivergence in the acting indistry. Watching this vid made my day and made me feel less alone.