Miserable and Unpleasant Slog of a Movie about Nothing

Rating: 3/10 (4 October 2019)

BREAKING NEWS: Killer clowns are back! But this time they're not pranksters mimicking Pennywise to scare the sh*t out of people for viral memes; they're "incels" threatening to gun down everyone who chooses to take their date to this dour, depressing, demented movie.
If this Joker were the one featured in Nolan's marvelously entertaining Dark Knight, I doubt any of your skinny lonely drugged-up psychos would be rushing to hail this guy as his hero and inspiration.
Ledger's Joker is brilliant, manipulaitve, and consumed with an infectious, and sometimes charming, confidence. Phoenix's Joker is dumb, depressing, and insecure. Ledger makes things happen. Things happen to Phoenix. The Joker controls events in Dark Knight. Events spiral out of control in Joker.
There is no fun in this movie, no great action set pieces, no hint of hope or optimism. It's a two hour slog of watching a miserable man drive himself insane until he starts murdering people. Then seemingly everyone goes insane because "they've had enough!"
Change the name of this movie to Arthur, eliminate the very few references to the Batman universe, and I doubt you'd think this was an origin story to the Joker we all know and love. Maybe this Joker is the closest to what the Joker would resemble in the real world...which is perhaps why this movie is so awful. Who wants that movie?
There are plenty of good character-driven films of mentally disturbed individuals who spiral out of control. There are plenty of good dark gritty super hero movies. This is neither of them.