About as great as any Joker origin story goes!!

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2020)

A lot has been said about this recent Joker movie, most have praised it, some have despised it and many have endorsed it. I'll admit, upon my first viewing, I felt a little conflicted but I still enjoyed the film. However once I viewed the movie a second and more recently a third time, I really do like this interpretation of the Joker character. There's no doubt, Joaquin Phoenix really does an amazing job here as Arthur Fleck, he gives the character his own feel and that laugh, well actually even the laugh goes through a couple stages in this. When you see Arthur laugh hysterically early on, you can see the pain in his face and how he holds his chest like laughing this hard is physically painful to him, but later in the movie when Arthur is about to fully transform into the Joker, he laughs at Randall in a very unsettlingly creepy way.
I won't go over the plot details as many reviewers have already gone into depth on that. What I will say though is, this seems to be a much divided movie for some. If you're the ultimate comic book nerd and you're looking for every bit of detail to follow the source material, then I can tell you, you will not enjoy this movie. If however, you look at this movie, not necessarily canon (despite the many Batman connections) and you see this as a different take on an origins story for the Joker, then you will find much to enjoy here. It is a slow burn though, but then it's meant to be that kind of movie.
I know many people don't like to get on the comparing game, but honestly I would say that Phoenix's Joker can easily stand side by side with Heath Ledger's Joker. Much like in the same way Jack Nicholson's Joker could stand side by side with Cesar Romero's interpretation. The less said about Jarod Leto's Joker, the better!!! And of course, I absolutely love the version of Joker in the animated series voiced by the great Mark Hamill.
Overall, this is a very good film, certainly one of the best films of 2019, but a masterpiece? That's a little difficult to say, I guess time will tell (especially if this spawns a sequel).