Dark Psychological Approach

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2019)

I saw "Joker", starring Joaquin Phoenix-Walk the Line, Gladiator; Robert De Niro-The Comedian, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle; Brett Cullen-The Shallows, The Dark Knight Rises and Zazie Beetz-Deadpool 2, Atlanta_tv.
This is the first in the DC comics new line called DC Black Label. They will be stand alone movies not connected to the regular DC universe of movies. Joaquin plays Joker in this dark psychological approach to his origin story. You see his descent into madness and the violence here-although not a lot of it-is sudden and very graphic. Joaquin works as a clown while developing his joke telling abilities as a stand up comedian-he performs at clubs whenever possible. Robert plays a talk show host-think Johnny Carson-that gets a video of Joaquin's act and invites him on his show. Brett plays a man running for mayor that wants to clean up Gotham City-they have been having problems with people becoming vigilantes that are taking the law into their own hands and even killing people. Zazie plays Joaquin's neighbor that he has a crush on. There are times that you are not sure if a scene is really happening or if Joaquin is imagining it in his deep psychosis. As to the question of whether or not Batman makes an appearance or not; Yes & No. Bruce Wayne shows up, but not in costume.
It's rated "R" for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and smoking and has a running time of 2 hours & 1 minute.
I enjoyed this different look at a familiar character and would buy it on DVD.