Controversy has swirled around the grimy origins tale but Todd Phillips’ DC drama isn’t anywhere as shocking as it seems to think it is
There’s been an air of tense caution surrounding the upcoming release of Todd Phillips’ new film Joker, an apprehension eerily recalling the anarchy in Gotham following the clown criminal’s terrorist threats in The Dark Knight. Maybe it’s due to false memories of the Aurora shooter dressing up as the Joker (a bit of apocrypha since disproven) before opening
fire on a screening of the follow-up, The Dark Knight Rises, in 2012, or maybe it’s due to the subject matter of a man on the edge finally snapping and going on a spree. Most likely due to a combination of the two, large swaths of the public share in a faint unease that the nationwide premiere may provide occasion for an act of mass violence.
Related: Joker strives to capture our cultural moment – but it’s smug and banal at heart