Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2019)

Where do we begin? Well, it begins as you might expect. The teaser trailer for Joker drops and I am instantly captured - it is one of the best trailers I have ever seen. My anticipation is sky high, and every day closer to the release raises it higher. Just a week or so before the opening day, criticism and controversy starts to surround this film. It encourages a certain type of violent acts that are frequent across America. It symbolises it and sends the wrong message. Some argue against this - some argue for it. Nevertheless, being the scared, paranoid, creature that I am, I begin to have second thoughts about the upcoming premiere. Nonetheless, I attend the opening night. In the back of my head I have all these thoughts about what could go wrong. I know stuff has happened before, I know about the controversy surrounding this film, but it wipes off easily. Until an unidentified man places an unidentified bag in the aisle right next to me. The next two hours I spent maybe just as afraid as I have ever been before.
Joker is without a doubt a disputed and controversial film. It is horrifying and psychologically unhinging, to the point where I even question If this is really why I go to the cinema - I don't go to the movies to be scared to return. Whether it was circumstances (it probably was, in addition to my paranoid self) or the movie itself that caused my hysteria, you cannot take away from this film the way it impacts you.
Todd Philips, in combination with a spectacular Joaquin Phoenix, manages to put you inside the mind of a mentally ill, abused, lonely man, and show how society treats such a person. What is truly sensational, and overwhelmingly mind-terrorising, is how we also get to see a first person reaction to those circumstances. The movie takes you deep inside the head of the Joker, and it is not a pretty place to be. Moreover, by showing Arthur Fleck's descend to madness, they also show just how bad it can get in a country like America. One might see it as a black mirror, reflecting on America and the American society, showing its darkest colours.
As a whole, Joker works brilliantly as a dark "comedy", as to quote the man in question. Every performance is spot on, particularly from the already mentioned Phoenix, though also from De Niro, who seems to be having his best year in a long time. Still, the score is by far the most impressive thing about it - If Hildur GuÃ°nadÃ³ttir does not win the Oscar, I'm boycotting.
Apart from some over exposition, Joker is an almost flawless cinematic piece. The only inquiry that remains, is if it crosses the border of being what it speaks against. After writing this review, and having cooled down from the experience, I can say now, from my perspective, that it doesn't. Joker is the film that America wants to hide from.