Riveting performance, Fitting origin story.

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2019)

Joker, a character ever immortal, and reinvented, reimagined in several forms and formats is a character explored on several levels, at several points in his menacing career as the supervillain of Gotham City. Characterized by psychopathic cackling laughter, a clever disarming of the Batman's greatest strengths through elaborately designed plots and with a seemingly insatiable army of goons always at his disposal, he is a handcrafted villain for the Batman. But, in this movie, we see not the Joker who is playing to his strengths outwitting the Batman, but the Joker at his very weak early beginnings, unsure of his existence and accepting of societal maltreatment to some degree. Philips' Arthur Fleck suffers from medically diagnosed uncontrollable laughter, at moments inappropriate, gets beaten down by kids on the street, aspires for greatness but is resigned to his existence but is proud of his ability to provide for his mom. The transformation to the Joker we know through an unmasking by masking of sorts is carefully unraveled through an unraveling of Arthur's already fragile life revealing an ever sinister gratuitous Joker. The much lauded Bathroom scene is a pivotal point in the transformation, masterfully revealing a sure footed performer who finally finds the reality of his existence, and the comedy in his tragic life - he felt alive in others' deaths. Death does make more cents than life - as he scribbles in his journal and thus he goes on a killing spree of redemption, and of manic laughter, not because he can't stop; because he won't stop. De Niro pays a homage to The King of Comedy, being the Jerry Lewis of Joker, the have-it-all with no sense of compassion for the commoners, seeing life revolve around his show and himself all the time. And, in confronting him, Joker confronts his own hollow dreams and aspirations, and shoots them down as never to be, accepting his persona and reveling in the chaos he creates, making his world a one in which the mentally ill don't need to smile and be alright, but embrace the madness within. Serving as an excellent origin story, as outlined, the screenplay still takes liberties in that there are some loose threads connecting the culmination of the transformation, and suffers from overreliance on Phoenix's phenomenal performance to get the point home. The music by Hildur Gudnadottir is haunting, and stays lodged in the mind long after leaving the movie theatre, resonant of the sad, but increasingly more assertive titular character. An 8/10 overall.