Research Catalog

Title

No joke : Todd Phillips's Joker and American culture / M. Keith Booker.

Author

Booker, M. Keith

Publication

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2023.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vii, 268 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"No Joke is a detailed examination of Todd Phillips's Joker, one of the biggest global box-office hits of 2019. While his success was no doubt partly because of the association of its title character with the Batman superhero franchise, Joker is anything but a flashy superhero romp. It does explore the pathologies of its central character and suggest ways in which his life experiences might have driven him to become a supervillain, the arch-enemy of Batman. At the same time, the film leaves open the possibility that its "Joker" is not, in fact, the same as the one conventionally associated with Batman. In fact, the film leaves open many interpretive possibilities, in keeping with the complex work of postmodern art that it turns out to be. Joker also engages in extensive dialogues with a range of works from modern American culture, especially the films of the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which the action of Joker is set. Moreover, Joker is a highly political film that comments in important ways on American political history from roughly the beginning of the presidency of Richard Nixon through the end of the Trump presidency, with a special focus on the Reagan years. It also comments in more general and fundamental ways on the very nature of American society and American capitalism. All this, and more, is covered in M. Keith Booker's analysis of one of the most talked-about films of recent years."--

Subject

• Joker (Fictitious character)
• Joker (Motion picture) > History and criticism
• Politics in motion pictures
• Culture in motion pictures
• Culture in motion pictures
• Politics in motion pictures

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-257), filmography (pages 259-262), and index.

Call Number

MFLP (Joker) 23-4671

ISBN

• 9781800856455
• 1800856458
• 9781800855212 (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

1359606754

Author

Booker, M. Keith, author.

Title

No joke : Todd Phillips's Joker and American culture / M. Keith Booker.

Publisher

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2023.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-257), filmography (pages 259-262), and index.

Other Form:

ebook version : 9781800855212

Research Call Number

MFLP (Joker) 23-4671