Incel revolution

"Joker" is a 2019 US film. It´s connection to the Batman franchise (which includes a villain called the Joker) is purely nominal. It´s really a free-standing story about the descent of a socially awkward individual into murderous madness. 

The story (if you can call it that) seems to be set when Reagan was US president and many mental hospitals closed down. The main character, Arthur Fleck, is a failed clown who lives with his disturbed mother in "Gotham" (obviously a run-down New York City). He has a previous history of mental illness and believes himself to be the illegitimate son of billionaire Thomas Wayne (the father of Bruce Wayne, the future Batman). Abandoned by a callous and oblivious class society, Fleck becomes increasingly violent and starts to identify with his fake clown personality. After shooting three of Wayne´s employees at a metro train, the "clown killer" becomes a popular hero, as crowds of socially downtrodden people don clown outfits and start to protest the rich and the powerful. Fleck eventually kills a talk show host who insulted him live on TV, at which riots erupt all across Gotham. And yes, he dances down the Joker Stairs to the tune of Gary Glitter...

The film created something of a moral panic in the United States, since it was apparently popular among "incels", socially isolated men who are "involuntarily celibate" and are believed to be violence-prone. Indeed, "Joker" does portray both Fleck and the riotous clowns with a certain sympathy. For instance, the three upper class brats killed by the Joker were harassing a female commuter and were prone to violence against the poor. Thomas Wayne clearly despises the common people, Fleck´s employer and some of his co-workers do harass him, and when the city government cuts funding, Fleck can´t get more medication against his condition. The protesting clowns come across as a mixture of Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous. In fact, the message of "Joker" is pseudo-leftist, while the incel community seems to be "Alt Right". 

However, "Joker" also shows the limits of an "incel revolution". It´s often unclear whether the story is supposed to be real, or whether everything is just a delusion in Fleck´s mentally unstable mind. His Black girlfriend is clearly a wish-fulfillment fantasy. The film is deliberately vague on whether Fleck really is Wayne´s abandoned son or not. In the end, Fleck is simply arrested and sent to a psychiatric ward (named after Arkham, a place in H P Lovecraft´s horror fiction), and although he tries to escape, it´s difficult to envisage him as the super-villain of the Batman comics and movies... 

It seems the incel revolution is something of a joker.