A CNN commentator is claiming that the hit movie Joker represents a validation of “white-male resentment,” which he said was instrumental in helping bring President Donald Trump to the White House.
Jeff Yang, who is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, wrote in the online article published Sunday, that Joker acts as a political parable in the age of Trump.
“It’s an insidious validation of the white-male resentment that helped bring President Donald Trump to power,” Yang wrote.
He added that the movie is about the “forgotten man” — “a man who has been crushed underfoot by the elite, dragged down by equality-demanding feminists and climbed over by upstart nonwhite and immigrant masses.”
Yang claims that Joker director Todd Phillips is drawing “from the same well of resentment that Trump strums with his racist rhetoric at his rallies.”
The commentator cites Phillips previous statements to Vanity Fair in which the filmmaker criticized “woke culture” for killing comedy and making people overly afraid of offending others, especially on social media.
Phillips has also slammed the far-left media for disingenuously stoking outrage over Joker before its release.
“What’s outstanding to me in this discourse in this movie is how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. It’s really been eye-opening for me,” he told The Wrap.
Joker grossed an impressive $93.5 million domestically on its opening weekend and has so far taken in more than $245 million globally. Actor Joaquin Phoenix has earned rave reviews for his performance in the movie, which brings a dark, gritty approach to the super villain’s origin story.
CNN’s Yang wrote that the movie’s ending embodies Trump’s survivalist instincts.
“Phillips may not have intended for his film to be a political parable — or maybe he did — but it’s hard to imagine a darker ending for our real-world horror-comedy than that.”
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