One iconic glam band helped inspire the new Joker film in a sad way

If you have not seen the new Joker film, there might be spoilers here. I can't be sure as I haven't thought that far ahead yet. One thing is for certain, though. The new film is not as good as the first Joker film with Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix and Lady Gaga are great in the movie, but the story is not quite a fine.

This is why one iconic rock band inspiring the film, at least according to Phoenix, feels a bit sad. That band is Kiss and Phoenix drew inspiration from Gene Simmons and his bandmates beginning by wearing makeup but then in their 40s, they did not want to do it anymore. Besides, their fans were mimicking them so much that the band wearing makeup only seemed more hollow.

In the film, Joker: Folie a Deux, Phoenix's character, Arthur Dent, struggles with maintaining some semblance of self versus fully becoming the Joker. (OK, spoiler alert ahead.) In the end, Dent wins out and Phoenix discards the Joker much in the way that Gene Simmons discarded his makeup for a few years in the 1980s.

Joaquin Phoenix says the new Joker film was partly inspired by Kiss

Phoenix told USA Today, "Did you ever think, how about Gene Simmons from Kiss? Where 20-year-olds are painting their faces, putting on platform shoes, all rock 'n' roll. But what happens when you're in your 40s and like, 'I don't want to put the makeup on anymore'? I just started laughing about that. Todd (Phillips) and I were like, maybe that's the beginning of something."

The sad part is that when Kiss decided to take off their makeup, that was almost the end of the band. They lost some of their danger and mystique. They made albums without the makeup, but they seemed more like an ordinary band instead of something unique. The same happens with Arthur Dent in the movie.

Now, mind you, Dent is clearly a mentally ill person who has killed people, so there is no correlation between Phoenix's fictional character and the real people in Kiss, but each entity is special because of their alternate personalities. The new Joker film should have been better. Kiss was always more interesting when wearing their makeup.

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