Fumarama

David Edelstein in his review in New York magazine better articulated my thoughts on Batman. He uses the word sadistic to describe the movie and it is the perfect word that I could not think of yesterday. Watching it, I felt like somone was torturing me. This happens a lot when I am watching a really violent or upsetting movie, but there was no release! (as I mentioned yesterday in my no happy ending remark.) It was torture that just ends. Even in Greek and Shakespearean, after everyone dies, there is someone who comes in and returns some sort of order to the play's universe. Here...nothing.

But also the Joker was in many way such an incoherent villain. I don't mean the whole not having a motivation thing, the movie addresses that. How does he pull off the pranks he pulls? To be able to rig two large boats to explode just hours after he rigged a hospital the night after he made two warehouses and a jail explodes, he must have a small army working for him. It is impossible to do all this alone. Where does he get all him minions? He is not charismatic. The movie covers that. And while he has money, he must have developed a reputation by that point of killing his henchmen. Plus, he is really really creepy, there are easier ways of making money, like selling drugs for the mob family.

Also, I felt this overwhelming need to wash the joker's hair. I think as someone who knows what it is like to have to deal with long curly hair, I felt the need to help, perhaps offer him some product.

Finally, what superhero movie is so dark that they kill the girl? They never kill the girl.