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The ‘Gone Girl’ director seems to criticize the portrayal of people with mental illness in the Todd Phillips-directed psychological thriller about the origin of Batman’s famous villain.

Nov 16, 2020
AceShowbiz – David Fincher has shared his two cents on Todd Phillips’ “Joker”. And while he himself has had his fair share of making a psychological thriller, “The Social Network” director appears to disagree with “The Hangover” helmer over the latter’s take on mental illness.
In an interview with The Telegraph to promote his upcoming movie “Mank” that will premiere December 4 on Netflix, Fincher seems to criticize the portrayal of people with mental illness in the Joaquin Phoenix-starring movie. He’s accused of shading the film while describing it as “a betrayal of the mentally ill.”
“Yeah, let’s take Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin,” he said, referring to Robert De Niro’s characters from the Martin Scorsese films “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy”, adding, “and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.”
Fincher made the comment as he appears to be blown away by the box office success of the movie that tells the origin of Batman’s supervillain. “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with ‘Joker’ had ‘The Dark Knight’ not been as massive as it was,” he said.
Fincher’s statement has sparked a debate on social media, with one tweeting in agreement, “David Fincher is right about Joker. You don’t set out make a political statement about the institutional powers that be and MISLABEL THE SIDES IN PLAY! Joker says politics in America is the left vs right when it is the center vs the right. The foundation of the film is an error!” Another enthused, “That David Fincher dislikes Joker proves that he has taste.”

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Some others disagreed with him as one hit back, “Don’t give a s**t what Fincher thinks about Joker or cancel culture. Unless he’s talking about getting Mindhunter up and running again, i don’t care.”
Another claimed, “As a severely mentally ill woman I’m gonna have to hard disagree with David Fincher on Joker. No offense to him and this isn’t abt my love of CBM bc Joker barely was one. It’s about the fact that no other depiction of mental illness ever resonated as hard w me as Joker did. Just my own experience though.”
While many regarded Fincher’s comment as criticism to the way Phillips handled mental illness in “Joker”, some others think that the “Gone Girl” director’s remark was taken out of context. “I think people are taking David Fincher’s quote out of context. Is seems like he’s saying society’s betrayal of the mentally ill rather than the movie’s betrayal,” one Twitter user argued.
Another echoed, “Yeah, I’m the first in line to throw shade at ‘Joker’, but once I read the full thing I hit the brakes. It’s not completely clear, but the fact that Fincher proposes a hypothetical inside a quotation makes me think he almost certainly does not mean what everyone thinks he means.”
Phillips has not responded to Fincher’s comment about “Joker”.

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