David Fincher claims Joaquin Phoenix’s 'Joker' is a ‘betrayal of the mentally ill’

Filmmaker David Fincher has come forward to give his candid take on Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and its complete “betrayal of the mentally ill.”

The director shared his candid thoughts with the Telegraph during one of his most recent interviews and was even quoted throwing shade at the sub-par quality of Joker.

He explained, “Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with Joker had The Dark Knight not been as massive as it was.”

During the course of his interview the filmmaker also weighed both Robert De Niro and Phoenix’s Joker together, adding how, “I don’t think ­anyone would have looked at that material and thought, Yeah, let’s take [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy’s] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars.”

He concluded by pointing out the studio’s overall thoughts regarding their future and claimed, “The general view afterwards among the studio types was, ‘Our careers are over.’ The fact we got that film made in 1999 is still, to my mind, a miracle.”