Well that was a surprise!

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2019)

Wow. I don't know what to say about this film. I have only seen one Batman film (Dark Knight) and despite the pretty unanimous positive reviews, I found it a bit dull. Not the fault of the film - Marvel type films are just not my bag. So I don't go and see them. And I wasn't going to go and see Joker until my mate told me it was nothing like I might think. I avoided all the reviews - all I knew was that it might be about mental health. And wow did I not expect this. Whoever thought up this film is an utter genius. Had it not been connected - albeit in an indirect way - to the Batman franchise, and instead marketed as a character study of a man struggling to shake off his childhood demons (Joachim Phoenix in You were never really here, for example) it would've been seen by a few and yet greatly admired by the critics. As it is, I see that it's got a great score on IMDb from the viewers, but less so from the critics. How can the critics be sniffy about this film? Apologies if this sounds pretentious but For me, it was a fantastic introduction to the masses of the delights of bleak drama at its best. Call a film Joker and set as a prequel to the Batman films and you're guaranteed box office success. I for one am very pleased that a film of such undoubted quality will be seen and enjoyed by so many people. And Joachim Phoenix? He was in pretty much every shot and an unbelievably believable performance. Hope he's recovered! Joker gets a surprisingly brilliant 8.5 out of 10 from me....