Staying power

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2019)

One of the things I found most memorable was the transformation of Joaquin Phoenix---the story isn't about a comic book villain, but a real person with a serious illness. All during the movie we see how life is for him--a horror of humiliation and fear. He trudges thru life (to get to his seedy apartment, he has to climb steep cement stairs. ) In his transformation into 'Joker', we can feel his sense of triumph as he descends those same stairs---Joaquin is unrecognizable in this new identity. This movie has hit some kind of nerve. So far, no violent imitators, just big numbers at the box office. In NYC, those stairs have become a tourist attraction.