I don't care for this asshole

Who? The character or the actor playing him?

My in-laws went to see it and they hated it. I loved it! I have always been a Joaquin Phoenix fan but I had read that with this movie people either loved it or hated it.

Take care! :)

I don't care for this post.

And: no, I'm not a "butthurt anarcho-leninist"

I can see that. If a main character is off-putting enough, it's hard to dig the film.

I didn't like the guy - I thought he was, by the end, a wretched human being who was running out of excuses and sympathy for his character - but I was compelled to watch his story, felt that the film raised great challenges to political divides and social systems, mental health, etc. (it followed through on its themes and ideas), so I liked it a lot. I also liked the look and feel of the film and I really, REALLY appreciated that they were doing something more interesting with a comic book movie than the xeroxed sludge that everybody else was doing.

As long as he's interesting.

You don't have to care for the protagonist of a movie/story for the movie to be worth watching...

It was an average movie... Yeah, Joaquin is an excellent actor, but we've seen him do better before (e.g. The Master)... But aside from his performance it was a very average movie... It's a joker backstory movie, so can't really be more interesting than it is...

The cultural discussion around the movie about incels, anarchists (left & right) and institutionalised living is more interesting than the movie itself... So I can see why the OP would have that opinion...

I didn't get enough exposure to his asshole to have an opinion one way or the other.

He seemed like kind of a jerk