With style over typical substance, "Joker" delivers an unlaughable masterpiece of its own.

Rating: 9/10 (25 October 2019)

"Joker," the tragic crime drama, loosely based on DC Comics' iconic villain & directed by Todd Phillips is a film of many layers but definitely not any sort of one typical comic book film. The impact and influence the film may as well leave behind is unimaginable & will definitely go down as one of the most iconic comic book films ever made.
Now, before jumping onto anything, let me be clear - Joker's story is weak to certain extent but it's upto personal realisation if a "story" is really possible in real life. Yes, the Todd Phillips (and Scott Silver) made sure that the film stays as realistic as possible throughout & I believe, they've done an exceptional job. Each & every directors have their own unique style of filmmaking. Someone like James Cameron prefers a proper cinematic story, someone like Makoto Shinkai prefers metaphorical exploration and depiction to explain the context, someone like Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino prefer nonlinear storymaking with additional dynamics through extraordinary usage of camera & music. Todd Phillips' Joker is completely different from anyone of them because right from the first minute, the film doesn't seem to develop a story but rather get driven by the characteristics-development of Arthur Fleck & the consequences he faces in daily life due to an unfortunate neurological condition, which makes him laugh at any given time without consent. And to think, that's where the "plot" begins interestingly!
Nothing to take away from Joaquin Phoenix though as he undoubtedly was the best part of the film! The impeccable performance he delivered is definitely rare nowadays & it'd be unfair to not stand up and applause at the end. He made sure that the viewers actually start to feel his life of betrayal by the loved ones and ignorance by others as much as him, himself, while keeping the political tone of the film intact. Yes, undoubtedly Joker, the core character of the film, will go down as one of the most influencing, significant & impactful characters in film history. Dialogue writer, too, deserves a lot of credits. But at the end, it was upto Joaquin Phoenix only for portraying the highly complicated character. But other than that, the rest of cast had pretty much nothing to do (other than Thomas Wayne, who's the key of the film as well as Arthur's mother, whose own mother ended up being the biggest betrayal of all) & therefore, expecting some high level casting would've been unfair. Nevertheless, each & every minor characters didn't lack any kind of acting skills.
But every significant incidents that occurred & the impactful and questionable consequences took place in return in the films, largely find their tones due to the background scoring by Hildur GuÃ°nadÃ³ttir. Pretty much on a Hans Zimmer's level performance, Hildur manages to provide an identity to the film as much as the director, writer & of course cinematographer. Laurence Sher, the cinematographer, too has had an exceptional performance behind the camera as he managed to capture the essence of poverty of America and how neglectful we, at times, are. The technical department, without a second thought, deserves one third credits for the success of the film and to be honest, that's highly usually as most of the time, their efforts go unnoticed. But this time around, the case is impressively different.
At the end, I'd say "Joker" is pretty much an unique and exceptional film & extremely rare of its kind. The title itself is a metaphor depicting the panglossian man whose optimism is being mocked and his core being shaken over & over again, rather than showcasing the glory of undoubtedly one of the most gruesome villains of all time as it's not one of your daily comic book films. It's not following any old storyline. It's not one pure psychological "thriller." It's not about just action, because the actions here are mostly not physical but mental. And it's definitely not about the iconic name of "Joker." It's about the negligence unfortunate people face, it's about events that can turn any person into criminals. It's about many things, which a film usually would fail to recognise or portray perfectly, unlike Joker & that's exactly why it's a must watch masterpiece. Todd Phillips & Joaquin Phoenix's true agathokakological representation of "Joker" sure is one that'll go down as one of the top (much deserving) contenders for Oscar 2020, one that'll highly influence you to not remain ignorant anymore and start to treat the unfortunate equally if not better, one that'll keep questioning you till the very end, one that'll test your own moral, one that'll shake your belief, one that'll introduce you to the actual dark world & most importantly, one that'll leave you spellbound to be answerable to yourself.