Joker

“Hello Jijah, how are you?”, a friend of mine, Nurin texted me just now through whatsapp. A friend of mine from high school, Sester. Before I replied, she continued “I just watched Joker and this movie reminds me of you.” I stared at the screen for a moment before typing.

Do not take me wrong ladies and gentlemen, I don’t suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA) like Joker. A condition where one’s suffer from uncontrollable and inappropriate laughing and crying. I don’t dress up like Joker as well, or put on heavy make up like him! Haha.

But, what reminds her of me is because of the mental illness that is vividly portrayed in the box office movie. She said, it is very tough to see Arthur Fleck trying to fit in, in the world when almost all people have zero knowledge about his condition. And sometimes, they, in fact us do not have any idea that such disorder  do exist!

I agreed. I watched Joker three days ago and I think it was an excellent screenplay. It is not easy for Joaquin Phoenix to bring the character to come alive and walk through the intense events as two different personas. Hats off to Phoenix! He did it perfectly. I tried to enjoy watching the movie without reading between the line, but sometimes, you know, it just happens. So, these are my humble opinions and thoughts about everyone’s current favourite movie. Joker and yeah, I also had discussion about the movie with my other friends.

1. The scene of Joker dancing in the washroom

Arthur Fleck

Joker first murder involved three young men in the subway and one of them is killed at the station. He shot them to death when these pricks hit him due to his laughs. After the incident, Arthur ran as fast as he could quite for some time until he reached a washroom. There, upon closing the door, he danced passionately, I guess that is how a clown dances? No? But, I have different interpretation about it.

His act actually reminds me of a condition known as part and parcel. I found this term while reading a murder case in Malaysia. Part and parcel is a type of recovery action after a person experienced an extreme of emotional distress. It is a temporal escapism for that person to run away from the reality for a while. I believe that was what happened to Joker.

It was his first murder. Scrutinizing Arthur Fleck as a person, anyone would not have thought that he is capable in committing a horrible crime. He was a good son, who treated his sick mother kindly and just a man who tried his best to make ends meet. The incident at the subway also marked him as a Joker psychologically. It was the night where he started to embrace his demon.

2. Penny Fleck

A friend of mine, Taqrimi mentioned that Joker also highlights parents play an important role in any mental illness issue. I could not agree more. Arthur treated his sick mother like a Queen, like having dinner in bed. Ironically, the scene that I love the most in Joker is the scene between Arthur and Penny. I like his intonation, his voice when he speaks to his mother. In another scene at Thomas Wayne’s mansion, he defended his mother when the guard (is he a guard) said to his face that Penny is crazy and delusional. I can see that Penny is like a wall between Arthur and Joker.

However, once he found out that a person that he loves the most has unsettled business with him in the past, he snapped. Everything starts to fall apart in his life, this unbearable emotions surges him from thinking rationally. He feels betrayed, and he decided to kill his mother. When he has no one to look up into, or to look up for, he has no other reasons to reject Joker.

3. Media

Let’s walk outside of the movie for a while. After watching Joker, as I walked out from the hall, I had this thought that this is not about Joker, it is about Arthur Fleck. The story revolves mostly on Arthur rather than Joker. Hence, indirectly we pay attention to before-Joker-phase rather than after-Joker-phase. Instead of killing people, initiating a movement against the government or causing a riot, we tend to pay attention to the efforts that he puts to be a person like having a job, meeting social workers and all the events that press him down like Randall, Murray, Hoyt and Penny.

So when I bumped into a tweet saying that these people are romantising mental illness as if they can accept all the horrifying murders, I disagree. Because they are not romantising mental illness, but for once and all, I instead would say the movie is an eye opener to them about the struggles of a person, and having the experience to walk through the movie with the character causes the endless discussion and debate in social media. Get it? Haha.

You know, I wish I could hug Arthur Fleck, but of course some of you would say harammm! Haha. No la, what I mean, I wish I can be a helping hand, or perhaps a helping voice to other Arthurs. And I do hope you do the same thing too. Be kind towards people around us. Do nothing, just be kind.

Loves,

Izah

1.51am

10 October 2019