Beware!!! rave review coming up

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2019)

Let me start by saying that the greatest actors always need several episodes of craziness to embody some disturbing character studies . Think of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, Christopher Walken in the Deer Hunter, Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York, Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, Omar Sharif in Dr. Zhivago, Keith Ledger as the Joker and the list goes on. The point is Crazy is as Crazy does! Will Mr. Phoenix go find something worthy to bite and chew out in 2021?
In an incredible performance, Joaquin Phoenix, the MAESTRO, has delivered a performance of a lifetime. A new Joker, fresh, showing vulnerability being transformed into pure menace. From his body language, to his dancing the actor becomes the character as he descends into psychopathic nirvana. I don't know why but i kept thinking of Michael Jackson? Am i alone in this?
While i do take issue with the editing, which i found uncomfortably maladroit, I understand the director's intention that we should never feel at ease with Fleck in the room ( as we are often reminded) but i could do without people flicking cigarettes ashes as a metaphor for a twitchy guy unable to deal with past traumas. As for the laughing, i prefer a bad joke delivered with some spray paint vs. gratuitous violence. Some editing is best done by dancing with sharp cunning scissors under the pale moonlight.
The movie has haunted me since seeing it and i promised myself never to see it again for the magic would surely disappear. Like some live performances, they are best not shot with a cellphone but left to linger in your cortex as the best thing EVER!!!!
I do recommend you see it on the big screen without distractions and invest yourself in what surely will carry all the Oscar buzz for the next season
Enjoy!