* ABSOLUTELY INSANE?? * Joker (2019) Reaction - First Time Watching (Part 2) 

Before the movie was released, people were worried that the film was going to glorify The Joker and inspire real-life violence. But this film doesn't glorify him or his actions. If anything, you spend most of the movie hoping Arthur would get the help he needs so he wouldn't descend into his madness, even though we know full well he's going to inevitably become The Joker.

17:20 Arthur's first genuine laugh in the whole movie. The first time it isn't a fake laugh, or a compulsive laugh. His transformation into Joker is complete.

"Can you imagine seeing someone do that on live TV?" R. Bud Dwyer from PA who took his own life on live TV in 1987 after being accused of various crimes he did not commit.

This is such a great origin story for Joker. But at the end while I'm horrified at what Arthur has become, I still feel empathy for him. Especially after seeing what he went through. I don't think I've ever felt this way from any other interpretations of the Joker. I love all the other Jokers but Phoenix has given us one of the most disturbing versions. He really deserved that Oscar.

The scene with his mother in the asylum was when he was actually reading from the doctor's notes that was their conversation as it was recorded.

"If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice." - The Joker

With regard to how much is in Arthur's head, it's impossible to know for sure. There's even a compelling argument to be made that he wasn't the subway shooter.

So, fun interpretation: its always dark, miserable, and depressing when he ascends the staircase (returning to his everyday life and the horrible things he has to deal with). However, when he finally lets go and embraces who he truly is and descends the stairs, it's bright and there is music playing. Same with his laughs. He has two distinct laughs: one he can't control when he is scared and a fake/forced high pitched one he uses to "fit in". Once he fully embraces the new him, the fear laugh goes away.

In the movie the Killing Joke, Joker tells batman that even doesnt remember his origin. That he preferred it to be multiple choice. The Nolan Joker is the same, telling different stories about his scars. Also the director did say that Joker didnt kill Zazzie Beats.

Arthur has 3 laughs in this movie. The involuntary laugh when he is stressed, the made up laugh he imitates when he thinks hes expected to laugh and finally his genuine laugh when he discovered things that make him happy. The violence he endured this whole time and everybody accepted it and expected him to go along with it, he is now being violent and expects people to accept it. And this gives him control and confidence. Juaquin Phoenix did a outstanding job in this movie and he deserved the oscar he got.

There are a lot of match shots in this movie. Arthur trudging up the stairs signifies life weighing down on him, dancing down the stairs signifies how free he feels. Same thing with a shot earlier, where he's staring out the window of the bus, looking beaten, a free man who feels trapped...versus the shot of him in the back of the police car, grinning at the chaos in the streets, a man in police custody, who nonetheless feels free and alive. I love that kind of visual storytelling.

I always felt like the Heath Ledger Joker was long after he’d embraced who he was. Joaquin’s Joker is about how he learned to embrace it. The bathroom dance especially drives that home. That scene always brings me to tears. In a crazy way it’s quite beautiful.

Actually, I have a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, and one of the interesting things we discussed was the Bystander Effect. Basically, the trend we see time and time again is that the more people there are around when someone needs help (like when critically injured), the less likely anyone is to actually lend a hand in any way. The bystanders, when asked, would generally reason that it's essentially someone else's problem, and that with all these other people around, someone else will help.

That score is unbelievably GOOD!

I hadn't noticed his expression at 12:58 before. Upon hearing the condition of the two detectives that were after him. The world around him keeps blocking all his attempts to be good at every turn. He wishes he could make people smile but he can't. He didn't want to hurt anyone but he couldn't take being used, beaten and disrespected any longer. I don't think people should worry about someone being inspired by media to commit crime. Those people would do it either way. Sometimes those that have committed acts of violence blame something after the fact in order to shift blame. Joker is about a person who is in pain with no way to stop it, that would drive anyone insane.

The significance of the stairs is that as he was trying to go up it was nothing but pain and misery. His descent down into madness was when he was most happy as signified in the film by him going down the stairs dancing

Awesome that you’re reacting to this movie. And awesome thoughts from the both of you. I must say, I actually have been half and half on this movie. With Joker being an unreliable narrator, it kinda made me wonder how much of this stuff really did happen and how much didn’t happen, and was just in his head. So it kinda made me wonder how much anything we’re even learning about him is true. but what I did like about this movie, is that while they did give us a look at how he became the Joker, I like that they didn’t overdue it in making him a sympathetic character. In my eyes, I still saw him as someone scary and dangerous that I wouldn’t want to be alone with. In a movie with mostly a lot of talking and build up, I feel like the payoff at the end was totally worth it. And sometimes I feel like that’s what some villains in movies/tv shows has been missing. In giving them too much sympathy and backstory, I feel like they lose what makes them scary.

Great reaction! I love this movie! At 1:25:36 I think the picture Arthur looks at proves his mother told the truth. It's a picture of his mother when she was young and the back says "love your smile... TW ". I haven't seen a reaction yet to notice that!

"Killed his mom for nothing"? LOL. Are you forgetting the years of childhood abuse she let him go thru? Being chained to radiators and such?

The police called to him from the stairs because they wanted to see his reaction. Him running affirmed their belief they were investigating the right man.

Great Reaction. No Arthur didn't kill Sophie. In a deleted scene, she watched him on the Murray Franklin Show . (Joker)

"Being yourself" is a only healthy, when you're healthy. Generally speaking, if you're Arthur Fleck, be somebody else. Anybody else

So a lot of people are pointing out that the whole movie may be in his head; because he starts the movie talking to the social worker and ending the movie talking to the social worker kind of symbolizing that it was all in his head but I have a bit of a theory….. and it involves the dancing, every time he’s in his imagination he acts normal and kinda of like a idyllic version of himself he can control his laughter he walks normal socializes normally, but when it’s real life he does laughs uncontrollably, walks with a weird lumber, and the freestyle dancing, so that last scene at the end of him dancing as he escapes Arkham asylum shows that his actions were real.

what a performance of mr phoenix ! !!!!

You had some amazing perspectives during your reaction. Killing twice for the sake of violence and him copying others laugh that don't sound genuine to him. honestly Intriguing takes. Bravo

17:17 🤣 oh, man!

20:56 There's a fan theory out there that the "joke" Arthur is thinking of is him CREATING BATMAN in his head. As he knows he can't be a "good person" & his ego can't accept him as an "average bad guy," he imagines himself as the GREATEST EVIL in the world that created the GREATEST GOOD to fight him. In Alan Moore's THE KILLING JOKE, Joker once told Batman something interesting about his past: "I'm not exactly sure what happened. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" The theory goes that EVERY incarnation of the Joker is Arthur imagining his epic fights against Bruce Wayne in whatever mood he's in that day.

Can't wait for you guys to watch 'The Batman'. Such a great movie.

Joachim Pheonix and Heath Ledger won Oscars for playing The Joker, while Jack Nicholson and Jared Leto had already won Oscars before playing The Joker...so every big screen movie adaptation of The Joker has been done by an Oscar winner either beforehand, or for playing the villianous role. I think Joachim Pheonix took inspiration from Cesar Romero's insanely laughing Joker from the 1960's Adam West Batman series where The Joker was completely nuts, but always laughing maniacally, though Pheonix brought his own twist to the role with aplomb.

Oh my dears, you're reaction seems like it was exactly like mine the first time I saw it. I tho cried throughout, off & on. It was such an epic, absolutely phenomenal movie. Taking a comic book character and making him real and feel empathy and love and caring for him was so amazing. It took me awhile and watching it a few more times, to let it all sink in and wrap my head around it all. I absolutely loved it!!!! 😍❤👍💛👏👏👏👏👏 Joaquin winning the Oscar was SO well deserved! His performance and the music and directing and cinematography and lighting was just all spot on and sent chills down my spine and goosebumps on my skin, even when I just saw the trailers of this. I think it touches so many of us, as you said too, bcs there are these issues and problems going on in our world & societies, esp where mental illness or poverty or even bullying etc... Gets swept under the rug and not dealt with properly and there's never enough funding from Govts to help those who most need it. So we end up with all these mass shootings going on and homelessness is rampant in the mentally ill community. It's a disgrace and I'm so thankful this movie was made to put a spotlight on it, using Joker. Cuz it reached millions more then if it was just a movie about a man with mental illness. Of course he suffered from many issues, childhood PTSD, his laughing disorder, he naturally would be narcissistic (since his Mother was, and he had all his grandiose delusions). So basically he started out a good person, but his childhood and society turned him into a serial killer who finally felt like he mattered and had numbed his truest nature of goodness. It's a heart breaking yet truly beautiful movie to watch. Even the ending, you were like me, almost feeling bad for smiling and cheering on the chaos ... Yet I don't think any of us should feel bad. Cuz I think so many of us kinda related. Maybe some moreso. Even tho we don't condone violence.. It just seems like redemption for him. And it does make you smile. ☺ Peace and wellness to you sweet ladies. Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed it and hope you read this. 🤗 Edit add-on: I agree about everyone has some craziness, we do but most can control and handle the madness, for some i think it's too much and they tip over the cliff of craziness to madness... Then you have serial killers, mass shooters, etc... They can't handle the craziness and want to end it all. So they hurt others bcs they hurt, and then they get caught and consequences. It doesn't make what they do ok, never, but this movie so eloquently shows perhaps the process of creating a madman. Taking a tiny soul,child and putting them in a violent, neglectful childhood then sending them into a cruel world where they are bullied and perhaps can't cope or associate. It's really a dreadful synopsis of events that lead people to these deeds and actions. I, along with millions, was cheering Arthur on! Would I cheer on a mass shooter or serial killer in real life... Prob not. But this movie just helped us understand those who suffer, truly suffer with conditions out of their control and have empathy and yes, give a cheer when they get a bit of redemption. Ok.. I'm off my soapbox lol 😄 Truly a masterpiece, epic. And Joaquins performance was phenomenal. Cuz it was SO physically demanding yet he barely ate to get so skinny for this role. And also the emotional toll it must have took for him to master this character with all its many layers. Absolutely the best performance I've seen.... Ever! ❤

It reminds me of "The Outsider" by HP Lovecraft. It's about a guy who lives his whole remembered life in a subterranean tunnel system of a castle. He's afraid of his surroundings and the existence that he leads and so after a particular disturbance in his surroundings, he fights his way out and escapes. When he reaches the surface and finally comes in contact with other people. He finds them escaping for their lives. He assumes its from the event in the castle until he catches sight of his own reflection. He is *of* the castle. He's a horrifying creature. And he will never be accepted among the people that he so desperately wanted to reach. He's a monster. And he will always be. And he's forever locked outside the compassion of man. So his only chance is to find companionship among other monsters.

In the beginning of the film, there was a chance that the Joker could of gotten the help he needed. Mental health is a major problem in society today, but here’s the way I see it: If you know you have mental issues, and you decide to get some help for yourself, that’s the first step to recovery, but it doesn’t stop there. You have to continue the help for yourself and fight through your personal demons. It’s hard as hell, and it’s never easy to admit, but ultimately you have to decide to better yourself. Now…there’s a line you can’t cross during this process, the crime scene line. The line between you and innocence. And that innocence is lost once you take a life (other than self defense). Once the joker committed his first murder on his own free will, he became lost. In my eyes, his innocence was gone and he became the cold blooded killer we all know today. Today, we live in a society where we feel remorse more for the killers than the victims. Everyone is ready to feel so bad for the killer because of his “Mental Problems,” and like I said, it is a major problem yes, but once the line is crossed, you have no more excuses. Everyone has demons in their head telling them to do horrific things, but the moment you have those thoughts, or you know someone who’s on the brink of losing themselves, get them help. Don’t wait for a tragedy to strike because by that time, it’s too late. Now, there is such a thing as forgiveness. Yes…I believe forgiveness is possible, but the only true genuine way that can happen…is by turning yourself in, do your time, (the entire time that you’re sentenced) and afterwards get some help for yourself. Bottom line, you can’t force people to get help. They have to want to change themselves. You can encourage them to receive the help you know they need, but ultimately it has to be their choice. In closing, the mentally unhealthy individuals need that help before a major disaster strikes, but once the line is crossed, my sympathy for them is gone. I don’t give murderers any excuse after the fact, because by then they’re nothing to me but just that…murderers.

When you're discussing Thomas Wayne being the Father or not and that genetically maybe Arthur turned out as disturbed as his Mother.... Remember tho that the papers say he was "adopted", so she couldn't pass on genetically any mental illness unless she WAS telling the truth and she and Thomas had an affair and then Arthur does carry her genetic instability. And Thomas figured out she was crazy and had her sign all those papers to get away from it all. Also, about the subway scene... It's interesting to me that after he shot the first 2 guys in self defense and the 3rd guy in the leg ... He turned the gun on himself briefly (amazing direction btw or just Joaquins intuition), and then decides to finish the guy off. Then the bathroom scene with the cello. I think that's the moment he becomes Joker. But so much in this movie is so amazingly put together and can be analyzed over and over probably, but those are some of my takes. My take on the end scene is it was all real, the scene with his followers helping him. Cuz the Joker has followers, his cronies and helpers, so that makes sense. The very last with him in Arkham, I think was back when he was locked up and he escaped and then the beginning of the movie should follow. Ya know.. That's just my opinion.

The Joker is such an unreliable narrator that when the credits rolled I was left wondering what actually took place.

It is scary just how real this story of Joker is. You can see this kind of tragedy in daily life. So sad.

Some time, I dare the 2 of you to read the book by Tracy Hickman, "Wayne of Gotham". Takes place somewhere around the Dark Knight timeline. You learn the history of the Wayne family and why there's so many villains in Gotham.

i'm so excited that the adventures of arthur will continue... apparently the first draft of a joker 2 script was turned into warner bros recently. i for one cannot wait to see what sort of funny jokes he cooks up for his return performance. :D

i’d like to see you watch “king of comedy” now, and see the similarities btw it and “joker.”

"Happy". That's the nickname his mom gave to him... and she says that he was always a happy little boy... so he prob laughed when he was being abused by his "step-father". This film is really dark and sad.

I don't know if this was an inspiration or not, but the way he dances is sometimes very similar to a Japanese style of interpretive dance called "Butoh". It's a very raw and primal form of physical expression that's MEANT to be very strange and uncomfortable to look at, often bordering on (or including) contortionism. it REALLY shows in the subway scene.

Great reaction! It really doesn't matter whether Batman and Joker are brothers. What matters is what you believe - or actually what Joker believes. This movie cries for a sequel.

Baseball flying lights explosion sparks

I think the revolution because of him was everything just his imagination

The ending where he says that she wouldn't get the joke is an inside joke to the audience in my opinion. It cuts to the dead parents and Bruce shortly after he says it ... The joke is that he created Batman lol At least that's how I interpret it..... so it's meta

There's really a paywall for the rest of the discussion? oookk

I belive this mother told the truth and Thomas Wayne made up a story. At least I would like to belive it happend because Joker and Batman being related it a new take on the very well known picture. Great reaction. I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

Personally, I don't think Arthur is a Wayne. When Arthur is looking at the back of the photo and it has T.W. written on it, it's in Penny's handwriting when you compare it to her written letters.

The director said there's a deleted scene that that girl is watching the Murray show when he killed him so yeah she's ok he didn't kill her but he cut it to stay with Arthur. Everything was probably in that file he just imagining how the interview with his mom went

Batman: did someone say Vengeance 10:30

Crap I didn’t think about the big crowd scene after the accident as one of his fantasies. That’s one of my favorite parts too lol. I didn’t go that deep though and speculations like how he wasn’t even supposed to be the real joker annoyed me. I took it all on face value until it was shown to not be real, like the girlfriend. If it wasn’t revealed, I took it as real. 🤷‍♀️ Anyway when I thought the girlfriend was real and she said she thought the subway killer was a hero, my first thought was OMG is she going to be Harley Quinn? 🤣

Arthur intended suicide on Murray's show. But he changed his mind.

There’s an old Deniro film called The King of Comedy. This is like the darker version of that film. Very interesting parallels between the two movies

I always wondered how throughout all the movies and comics, the Joker and other villains' got so many people to follow them. This movie kind of clears that up. In Gotham, apparently too many people became disenfranchised by corrupt government officials and business leaders. Like Thomas Wayne, and his heartless comments. The way the system failed Author and basically tossed him off a cliff. The way the therapist seemed so casually unconcerned when Author says " Were am I supposed to get my medication?". Like its not my problem. Well eventually it did become her problem didn't it.

omg shes wearing a Buffy The Vampire slayer hoodie

This movie is about compassion. And sympathy for the most misshapen and superficially disgusting elements of society. Everyone's got a history. And their worldview makes sense from their perspective.

Painting

It says that his mother adopted him.

I believe Arthur's mother. She said 'they' made her sign some papers and she also says that they made up the adoption papers. It's the reason why she was hospitalised AFTER Arthur visited the Wayne manor, choked Alfred and started speaking with Bruce. Rich people are afraid to lose what they have.

Blue

I have a lot of trouble not laughing whenever Arthur is laughing because I'm a bit of a sympathetic laugher, But I feel so awful.. this is such a good movie. And a really highlights the struggles of mentally challenged people if it goes unchecked.

The director confirmed that Arthur didn't kill Sophie.

4:47 I figured out that Arthur didn’t really have a relationship with that girl immediately and was an unreliable narrator.

Achei esse filme muito bom. Não precisaria ser o personagem JOKER. O personagem poderia ter qualquer outro nome. O fato de se passar no universo de comics foi interessante demais! Muito sucesso para seu canal! Tenho acompanhado. Parabéns

You can’t take anything that happened in this film as real. Like the imaginary girlfriend anything that happened in this film could be the Joker’s delusion. Even in Nolan’s 2008 the dark knight the Joker’s past would change each time he told it. The Joker invents his past and personality to fit the events of the moment.

Judging by other joker comic origins joker is the narrator of the movie / story... its all make believe, his story to the shrink at the end of the story... certain aspects show this, the gun firing more times then it could. The girlfriend etc... its all in his head that's the joke..

I watch movies alone so i don't have to hear someone talk during the whole thing.

If you take what they showed us in the movie Thomas Wayne is absolutely Arthur’s father. The main proof is the fact that Arthur grew up with Penny Fleck tells us that she is 100% Arthur’s biological mother because if he was adopted Child Protective Services would have taken the child and Penny would never se him again because he would be taken far away from her and he would have been given a new identity and put up for adoption again. Since It’s obvious that Arthur was returned to Penny that as the biological parent she would have to serve her time and take parenting classes among other treatment. But legally the only way someone can have a child returned to them is if they are the biological parent. Also Arthur found a photo with some romantic writing and the initials T W on the back of it. Arthur just crumbles it up and tosses it but that photo had to have been something personal that Thomas Wayne wrote on and gave back to his mother Penny. The age difference is also consistent to the history of the joker and Batman. Cesar Romero’s Joker was 30 years older than Adam Wests Batman and Jack Nicholson Joker was around 14 years older than Michael Keatons Batman. The only movie or tv show that showers a close age difference was in The Dark Night where Batman is actually older than the joker.

SURPRISE: Killing people for vengeance is LITERALLY killing people for pleasure. Joker in this movie is the definition of a bad guy, you just watched him starting as such.

The god and goddess of reactions lol

Can you please react to the horror classic movie Stigmata Starring Patricia Arquette Please

Man and the girl running sparks explosion

Парню по моему вообще пофиг, эмоций на лице почти нет. Как это в Америке говорят - poker face

Thor looks like Justin Whang

I would

eeeerm, no xD. Not all his death's are about vengeance. Murray didn't do anything to him beside the jokes, he was actually pretty nice in person and off-character. The girl literally didn't do nothing at all, but they left it implied that he killed her. The two cops didn't do anything beside investigating him, and he is there laughing as they are getting lynched. The Mom didn't do anything directly to him, and she only allowed it to happen because she herself has very serious mental problems, even the psychiatrist at the end (assuming the blood in his shoes is real). The point of the whole movie, as Tarantino also sayed, is that WE ARE ROOTING FOR THE PSYCHOPATH, just like the people of Gotham. In the end scenes they are shouting, moving and hitting things like they are cultists, and we also sort of act like that, because we find reasons to justify his acts. Arthur is a victim of life itself but not of anyone as a person, but still, he is out there on a killing frenzy against anyone he deems "awful".

✌️❤️❤️🤡!...

Raction please the batman

I am not totally sure I am in favor of this movie. There are many mostly OK people who may be influenced to feel they have been victimized, and misunderstood to the point of them wanting to lash out. Then, when the society becomes even less accepting of their antics, out comes the heavy totalitarian laws and weaponry, more chaos ensues. The dreams we have (as reflected in movies) have real life consequences. Just a thought...