A film like no other in this day and age

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2019)

Joker is a difficult film to review, as it will be a difficult film to enjoy for some people because it's not a single layered story, and it does not try to help you understand it. It requires your involvement to pay attention, question things, look for clues regarding what's really happening in the story. Before the final act, it does answer one important question so that everyone is more or less on the same page, but it blurs the lines once again in its ending as to what really happened in that final act. It's a tough movie. It depicts mental illness, its perception, its management, its treatment, its place in society, in a cold, hard, brutally realistic manner. It's not glamorized, or "sweetened" to make it more likable or relatable. It's not a super hero, or super villain story. It's a downward spiral into the mind of a very sick individual who tries to stay above water but eventually gives in to his inner demons because no other option is there for him, it's a movie about where we stand as a society when it comes to treating each other, it's a movie about kindness, the absence thereof, and its effects on people who need it. Some will love the movie, some will hate it, a lot just won't get it. Nothing to do with being smart, it's just a matter of experience with mental illness, which is played so brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix in this movie.