Literally see nothing from you on that post. Sometimes if you post links I have to approve it, and people comment so often I could have missed it. But I’m not seeing anything from you on that post at all. Sorry mate. Lisa and I commented on it, so I know that it was working…(?). If you want to email me your comment, I can make certain that it gets posted. Very weird.

I posted on the Tenet Patreon article a couple weeks ago and it still isn’t showing up. Any idea why?

Hey Luke,
Every single point you make is fair. And yet, I still loved it. It spun the Batman/Joker universe into reality. And for me, that is a morality tell with punch. At the very very least, it avoided the vapidness of all super hero movies, while still being a “super hero” movie. Gah I can’t stand them.

Ok Luke – this is probably what happened … at least for me anyway. Maybe I so badly disdain the flimsiness and hollowness of “super hero” movies that anything other than that would immediately work for me. Maybe. But not only did I enjoy the movie, I exalted in it. It was a story that shows how we regularly abuse the hurting, and build tropes of gods and heroes setting them on the backs of society’s least seen members. Which, maybe this movie does as well? But I also agree with the politics of helping the disenfranchised. Collecting taxes from corporations and individuals that are most likely to dodge their taxes, in order to help those who have nothing. Walking into work today I saw someone sleeping in the doorway of a church. He saw me coming and starting rushing to get out of there. Which, sort of just broke my heart.

But you make valid points. I just don’t see it the same way you do.

It laid extra heavy on every cliché about a poor, abused, neglected, mocked, simple, unstable, letdown by society, mentally-ill person. See all those adjectives? That’s overdoing it. And that’s not even all of them. Then they shoe-horned it into a Joker origin story. Blech. It could have been about any mentally ill individual in any real city. That’s the gist anyway, isn’t it? That’s it not all superheroes and supervillains, even in Gotham? Even in comic book land? That the Joker could happen anywhere, to anyone, given the right circumstance? Ruins it. The Joker–the real one–is brilliant, he’s clever, he’s a maniacal genius. This Arthur Fleck is a chaotic idiot who lacks impulse control and had 15 minutes of criminal fame.

Although, I will say, I didn’t hate it. I mean, you say it’s “love it or hate it,” but I say nonsense. The only reason this movie registers at all is because of all the hype, like this article right here. Otherwise, I’d find it entirely forgettable, a failed attempt to be timely and relevant and instead coming off as pathetic. This movie is lukewarm and I spew it out of my mouth.

https://taylorholmes.com/2018/07/19/the-reasons-i-love-and-hate-the-movie-mary-magdalene/

“But one of the biggest problems I have with this movie is Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Jesus. This Jesus sits and stares at the sky. Declares that we are to listen to the silence. He faints when healing people. This is not the Jesus of the Gospels that I have read. I have even heard many within the Christian circles say that Jesus never answered questions. He was aloof. And I got so annoyed with this I counted. And of the 120 or so questions Jesus was asked (depending on how you count them), he answered all but 4 or 5. And a couple of those were prophesied that he wouldn’t answer. (Like the prophesy in Isaiah 53:7 that says, something like, ‘like a sheep led to the slaughter he will not open his mouth…’ or some such? Feel free to look it up for yourself.“