Todd Phillips' villain flick "Joker," an origin story for the notorious Batman villain, was a surprisingly huge hit when it was released in the fall of 2019. The film's tone was gritty and severe, like a Martin Scorsese movie. This approach to comic book material was novel enough to earn "Joker" over $1 billion at the box office and 11 Academy Award nominations. Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his performance as Arthur Fleck (the mentally unstable would-be comedian who becomes a murderous clown), while Hildur Guðnadóttir also won for her funeral score.

There was some concern, even before "Joker" was released, that it would inspire terminally online men to commit acts of violence. After all, the film's Joker is depicted as an angry, ignored outsider who's unable to socialize with women an

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