If you want to know why it's a Masterpiece (some ask it here)-2nd review after I've seen it 4 times. I said that I had to see it more times to truly grasp it and I was right.

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2019)

Someone said to me that Arthur Fleck chooses to burn the world he's not adapted to, and I answered her: it wasn't a choice. It was an escape, his only true option towards earning some satisfaction, opposed to endless misery he was constantly living in. Arthur never had any joy, or at least some degree of vindication of any kind in "the normal world", as this normal world battered and beleaguered him at every turn, putting him down repeatedly as that would be his place. Did he lash out? No, he got up like a good boy, over and over again, dozens of times just to be thrown down again. Until one day, he fought back, surprising himself he could do it! And what do you know? It worked! Shocked by the outcome, he tried again the worlds way, the kind and tolerant way, and the world has again made fun of him, and thus leaving him with the only option that makes him feel something besides it, the only option that works: to fight back, realizing that ultimately the only way you could have some satisfaction in this up world if you are Arthur Fleck, is to rebel against it! And that's funny, especially when you've been such a good boy, trying to do good by everyone! This is the true final paradox, the realization that the answer hit you in the face and you didn't see it all along, and this fact makes him think his life is an actual comedy rather than a tragedy. As I said in my few words of my previous review, the only way The Joker could be the hero is if he would somehow be able to make everyone else seem like the villains! And for the very 1st time, in this majestic masterpiece called Joker, he vilifies the whole society, and from a certain point of view arising the need for it to burn!
Of course his life is one of tragedy, one of the cruelest imaginable. The very distance between perpetual humiliation and the choice to fight back being so tiny, but in the same time his inability to see it for so long is what constitutes the final paradox, almost making it sound like a comedy. Throughout the movie he cries while laughing or laughs while crying, but that's not the initial paradox. The initial paradox (reason) is easily spotted by anyone with deep enough empathy: when our human nature isn't able to handle the troubles anymore, pain seems unstoppable and the overflow of negative emotions is handled in opposing fashion. When the more you try, the worse it gets, you have 2 options: either you give up completely and kill yourself or although it hurts, you just laugh it out, you spit fate right in it's face! Arthur has lived this particular emotional paradox way before the action in the movie begins, because living it so many times before, by the time the movie starts the paradox is already part of his conscience, it's already a pathology, that's why when he's feeling unexpectedly sad or edgy, he's sent back in his mind to the paradox, to the uncontrolled laughter. That being the former reason for his behavior, the later being his whole life was a lie, from his detrimental mother to his submissive behavior; once cured from both, he could free himself from the decades of suffering also. The final paradox being the inconceivable: the fight against society bringing him vindication, instead of obvious defeat! Here is where our Joker differs from all of the villains of literature or classical culture, you can't pick a fight with society and win! Well, as it turns out... you can, if you're Joaquin Phoenix! Even his name is somewhat predestined for this, he was a good actor with an accomplished career but nobody had the nerve to call him genius before. And when everyone has forgotten about him, expecting him to die and be buried as an actor that will never know greatness, he arises and slams the door over your face with this Joker! And now, nobody can call him less than a genius, not even those who's brains aren't skilled enough to appreciate the movie.
So this is the initial paradox described in detail: you try to do right by your workplace - you're rewarded with laughter and abuse, you try to do a good thing in a buss - you're rewarded with insult and affront, you take good care of your mother, you go to (the super fun) work to provide for her, you wash her, you cook for her, you speak nice to her and listen to her - you find out she abused you when you were a boy without even knowing, that she's crazy, and the ultimate buffer reward of all: she's not even your mother! Notwithstanding the fact you're having a romance with the attractive colored neighbor that lives down the hall, that supposedly can carry you through the rough times, just to be again rewarded with the stupefyingly truth: SUPRISE, IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD! (I lost it there.) There's no way that you wouldn't ultimately laugh at the merit that's completely at odds with the reward given, without fu.king exception! It's way over the stage of complete sadness, it's complete madness, it doesn't make sense, and what do you do when something intense felt doesn't make sense? You laugh. You go back and forth between tragedy and comedy like it's a roller coaster, a confusion trip from which there's no escape! It's no rational confusion, there's nothing wrong with Arthur's reason, it's an emotional confusion, 2 opposite feelings experienced in the same time! If we accept as common practice that we can cry out of sadness, sometimes even out of joy, Arthur teaches us that under extraordinary duress, prolonged indefinitely, one can laugh out of sadness. Moreover so, you can develop a pathology in this regard. What he feels in the moment he realizes everything is a lie is the most choking emotion possible, when you're at your utmost end of your mental supplies, fallen past the edge. I have never quite seen that so well described as in this movie! Arthur's reason is never impaired, no matter how strong negative emotions, they never quite conquer his reason but flow in sink with it, as such, the radical difference between those who kill themselves and him is that he realizes that he still has value, even if nobody notices it, not even his own mother "Aren't you supposed to be funny, to be a comedian?". But real or not, he believes "People are starting to notice!", even though he is contradicted by the gross reality of his failed stand up comedy. Oddly enough, he's not completely wrong as that sentence starts becoming reality just after he's left without anything more to lose, and forced to act as much as he can in his own defence, as nobody else does! Masterpiece. Need I say more? No problem.
Just because he's left better off at the end of this movie than at it's beginning, doesn't mean we're gonna see a happy Joker in Joker 2! Not by a long shot, but strictly comparing him with his Joker one torment, I think he will be considerably better. I am surprised the creator of this movie, being one and the same, has actually decided to make a sequel! No matter how much money you receive from the producer company, to my mind, I can't possibly imagine how you could write a continuation, without tarnishing Arthur's personality shown in Joker 1. You can't turn him directly 150 degrees (considering 30 degrees he's already turned at the end of the 1st movie), a proper solid turn must be made, time and character consuming, because as we should know by now, Arthur cares a lot about "nobody's people" that have decency and compassion, even if he doesn't realize it, like he was until just recently, like the dwarf guy is and Arthur kissed him fatherly over his baldness showing his emotions of appreciation "You're the only one who's ever been kind to me!", making it blatantly obvious he does not ignore kindness in people. As opposite to what he shots his gun at! Occasionally dips his scissors in. (I like that Jackie Chan moment there, you can use any household item as a weapon - Kung Fu, right?) Joking aside, Arthur's morals are strong and the most obvious when he shouts his heart out on Gotham television "Nobody thinks how it's to be the other guy!", motto that in my opinion is the very center of his character! But that doesn't fit one bit with the classic Joker of the comic books or Nolan's Joker from The Dark Knight, it's a totally new approach of a Joker! That's why I love him. And those who think that motto is a joke, deserve more than just a bullet through their infectious thoughts, they would get off too easy! Because they are left way behind on the chapter of emotional inferno and need to be compensated accordingly, in order to understand what's it like! One of them being the rich mayor to be as he calls all of those trapped in this inferno as "Nothing but clowns!". But he gets what's coming to him, although a bit more pain wouldn't have hurt rather than complete oblivion that doesn't do him any good, aside from rising later on The Dark Knight. Back to Arthur and his live performance, nobody would have even cared what he shouted on that podium with all his might, if he wouldn't have made a clear point at the end, pointing out who's mean, why and what's coming to them mean ones, exemplified plenty and without any doubt! If he wouldn't have, they would have just thrown him out in the street like a piece of garbage and his words with him.
I want to say that another impressive feature is that this movie despite it's visceral drama also has cool comedy in it, some obvious, some noticed at later viewing and exemplify them but I'm running out of character space(..) In conclusion, in my 1st review I said that the scenery is just good enough, but after seeing the movie 4 times I realized just how brilliant it is! Combined with one of the best performances of an actor in the history of cinematography and a sound theme that make your eyes fall off right between your tears, it can't be denied as one of humanity's all time masterpieces. When or if alien races will ever contact us, there's ample reason we are a worthy race, just like Arthur and this movie is my proof towards our humanity's worth.