| Summary: | In the wake of the worldwide box office and critical success of Todd Phillips’s movie Joker (2019) and of the controversies which accompanied its release, this article focuses on the notion of circularity both in the film’s storytelling and its interactions with the viewer, especially through the numerous intertextual references and evocations which are developed on screen. The point of this essay is to establish how circularity allows the film to deliver both macro- and micro-political statements, not only addressing issues relevant to society as a whole but also asserting against all odds the film’s place in the official canon of DC Comics. Paradoxically, the process of circularity also contributes to blur the message, resulting in major misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the film in the public sphere.
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