Slapinions: October 2019

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Proof. But not of what they think.

People always hold discoveries like this up to be sad "proof" of global warming. In fact, they are proof humans once freely lived in lands that, in modern centuries, have been snow and ice covered - and only now are those lands returning to that "norm." Thus proving the Earth's climate ebbs and flows and doesn't give one tinker's dam about Al Gore and dear young Greta.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Joker

I finally saw Joker. It's grim and hopeless and full of emotional pain and my word it was good. Joaquin Phoenix is a spectacular Joker. If you want me to rank them, I still prefer Heath, but it's no landslide victory.

I'm no conspiracy nut but I felt a lot of the dire warnings that preceded Joker's release stemmed from Marvel/Disney using its media clout to try and bury a DC masterpiece.

I saw nothing in the film that encouraged or condoned violence. Arthur was a damaged man, mentally and physically, and an unreliable narrator. His actions are fruit of that poisoned tree, and SPOILER the mob he inspires uses his image as an excuse for mayhem, not inspiration. END SPOILER

I dont even buy the film as an example of class struggle. It wasn't rich vs poor. It was chaos vs order. The chaos of a pre-Guilanni Gotham/NYC where crime was accepted as the norm, where filth and grime were the decor of the day, where hope was absent. The Joker is that chaos; his future enemy, young Mr Wayne, is the balm of order and respect.

It's a great film, certainly better than anything the MCU has or will create. Go see it.