Joker Should Never Have Been a Period Film

Photograph courtesy of The New York Times

Since the first trailer came out last spring, it was obvious that Joker was indebted to the films of the 1970s, particularly Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. One of the ways director Todd Phillips does this is by setting the film in 1981 Gotham City, which is plagued by garbage strikes, super rats, and rampant cruelty. This makes Joker one of the few comic-book movies to be set in the past, which allows for some…