What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?

Rating: 7/10 (3 October 2019)

A psychological thriller that follows a man, disregarded by society, as he becomes an insane psychopathic murderer. It is an origin story of one of the greatest comic book villains of all time, the Joker.
The movie is very dark and it only becomes darker as you move towards the end. Prior to watching this movie I heard some people saying that this movie could work as a stand-alone character study, separate from the DC Universe and I fully agree with that. Of course the movie is set in Gotham and all, but it could really work as an independent psychological study of a man driven to insanity. It depicts the cruelty of the society and how it can affect an already troubled individual. As you watch the movie you really feel sorry about this guy and you understand why he becomes what he becomes. Normally, at this point you don't feel sorry for him anymore but you understand where he is coming from. The movie also portrays the polarization between the rich and the poor and how a polarized greedy society, where the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep being disregarded, leads to chaos and nothing else.
There was a lot of hype surrounding this movie and I have to say, after watching it, it didn't deserve it. The movie is great, don't get me wrong, it is really worth watching, but it's not a flawless masterpiece as everyone said it is. Best part about this movie is Joaquin Phoenix's amazing performance and one that deserves an Oscar nomination. It is hard for me to compare this Joker performance to others in the past because past Jokers where battling Batman, there was a hero and there was a villain. This is different, we see only the villain here, or rather the things that led to the creation of this murderous evil. Nevertheless, I think that the late Heath Ledger, god rest his soul, is smiling somewhere up there.