“Phillips may want us to think he’s giving us a movie all about the emptiness of our culture — but really, he’s offering a prime example of it,” Zacharek wrote. Phillips, who is best known for directing raunchy, comedic bromances like “The Hangover” franchise and “Starsky & Hutch,” presents Fleck as a man beset by misfortunes, from unrequited love to Gotham City budget cuts that block access to his psychiatric meds. In “Joker,” Zacharek says Phillips wants viewers to pity Fleck because “he just hasn’t had enough love,” but what he’s done is create a protagonist who could become the “patron saint of incels.”