Sam Mendes’ sweep goes some way to making amends for the awards’ now-notorious nomination shutouts – but I still can’t get onboard with the love for Todd Phillips’ cackling standup One of the more toxic ideas that Studies show this association is exaggerated and people with severe mental illness are more vulnerable to violence Arthur’s supposed loss of grip on reality is suggested by a peppering of nods to psychotic symptoms: delusional ideas of a grandiose nature (“I am an undiscovered comedic genius”) and hallucinations of his neighbour – which are confirmed by his eventual admission to a psychiatric institution.
Browbeating viewers into seeing certain movies shifts blame for a lack of diverse storytelling on to audiences, rather than the broken system of film production
Presumably, he suffers from the neurological condition Cinematic depictions of mental illness – most infamously, Films have the power to perpetuate stigma and fear, which is why the misrepresentation of severe mental illness in Joker should not be dismissed lightly. So why does 1917 get a pass?The monarchy, Al Pacino and Cats: the key snubs of this year's Baftas1917 deserves Baftas' thunderous applause – Joker does notBaftas 2020: Sam Mendes and 1917 emerge victorious with seven awardsThe full list of winners at the 2020 Bafta film awardsStreaming: where to find the best Jokers in the packPhoebe Waller-Bridge and Brad Pitt among winners at SAG awardsIs politics getting in the way of assessing which films are actually good?Oscars 2020: shallow Joker squats on top of patchy and infuriating nominationsJoker leads Oscars 2020 pack – but Academy just trumps Baftas for diversityOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood gets Oscar boost at Critics Choice awards
So why does 1917 get a pass?
This restoration of order via Arkham Asylum affirms the overarching inference of the film: Arthur’s descent into violence and destruction is triggered by his mental deterioration.
From first kiss to unfollowing – culture that sums up love in 2020Oscars 2020: Bong Joon-ho wins multiple awards for Parasite – as it happenedJoaquin Phoenix responds to best actor Oscar with impassioned speechParasite's brilliant win is a portent of change in the conceited Hollywood clubOscars tonight: timetable, predictions and all you need to knowJoker was criticised for ripping off old classics.
These are now readily discussed without shame and often represented in the media with a well-informed grasp of the facts, thanks to effective information campaigns.However, severe mental health conditions, such as psychotic illnesses, remain shrouded in stigma and are consistently misrepresented and misunderstood.
Mendes’s harrowing first world war movie takes best film and best director, while Joaquin Phoenix and Renée Zellweger win the top acting prizes With films playing a key role in shaping attitudes to mental health, two doctors say Joaquin Phoenix’s troubled supervillain perpetuates damaging stereotypesThe film’s dominance in the debate about portrayals of mental illness in the movies comes at a curious time. Recently, we’ve witnessed great leaps of awareness about relatively common mental-health issues such as depression and anxiety, and with that awareness, increasing dismissal of the sort of unhelpful prejudices that used to surround them. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Phoenix’s hypnotic psychopath, available to stream from next week, joins the brotherhood of those who have worn the supervillain’s painted smile Superhero movies have saved Hollywood. The result of this is to – disappointingly – remove Arthur’s agency and divert attention from a potentially more stimulating conversation about wealth inequality and its responsibility for societal collapse.We wouldn’t want to get bogged down in labels, but the psychopathology Arthur inhabits is foggy at best: his apparent lack of disordered thinking means the attempt to illustrate psychosis is half formed. So … In 2014, when the studio announced that Leto was to star as the Joker, the actor-turned-musician had just won his first Oscar, for playing a transgender drug addict in Jean-Marc Vallée… It was a hysteria that built online after film critics saw the movie at festivals and started to complain it somehow “glamorized” or … Joker frames Fleck against Gotham’s neon-drenched streets in a direct nod to Travis Bickle, while his flailing stabs at stardom echo the hapless Rupert … He’s cited movies by Martin Scorsese and (surprisingly) Chantal Akerman as influences. Todd Phillips, who is as crafty with the press as Mr Terrific is with T-Spheres, has said that he convinced Phoenix to appear in his supervillain origin story by suggesting they would “sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic-book film”. All the prizes – including the new one for best casting – at the 73rd British Academy film awards He also displays traits of narcissism and depression. Joker, which seems to draw in equal measure on Martin Scorsese’s scabrous media satire The King of Comedy and Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s graphic novel …
The Guardian - Back to home.
In the end, it undermines Phoenix’s hypnotic performance and Joker’s sincere attempts to explore the interaction between poverty, inequality and social isolation.Arthur’s chilling quirk – his bursts of incongruous and uncontrolled laughter – is no laughing matter either. This does not sound like someone who is particularly enamoured of the genre.
© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. This diagnostic vagueness may create a more relatable character that reflects the pain of any psychiatric illness; but it gives the impression that many disorders have been squashed into a plot device.