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Superhero movies have saved Hollywood. And here’s one that features a magnetic star turn, takes mental illness seriously – and wrestles with the collapse of liberalism
Even if it doesn’t happen, it would be a good idea for Joker to be awarded the best picture Oscar – mostly because it would signal Hollywood’s acceptance of, and reconciliation with, the genre that has basically saved it over the last couple of decades: the superhero movie. Every year it seems the heavy guns get wheeled out to protest that the films which make everyone in Hollywood rich – and for which audiences appear to have inexhaustible affection – are slighted by the Academy and that they are owed recognition.
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