Heath who?

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2019)

One in four people will experience mental illness in their lifetime, but only a very small percentage of those will pose any sort of danger to anyone other than themselves. Hopefully, as more people talk about openly about mental health, stigma will decrease, and all those in need of help will get the treatment they require.
There will, of course, always be cases that slip through the net with tragic results, people like Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), whose fragile psyche is the result of a lifetime of hurt: a victim of child abuse, a victim of violence, a victim of intolerance, a victim of circumstance, a victim of inequality, and a victim of a society that doesn't care. No longer functioning as a rational human being (his access to meds having been taken away), Fleck confuses reality and fantasy, is prone to outbursts of extreme violence, and dances wildly to inappropriate pop music from the '70s.
With a tour-de-force performance from Phoenix, whose turn as the green-haired villain is both sympathetic and terrifying, plus stylish direction from Todd Phillips, and an intelligent script that is, by turns, funny, sad, exciting, and horrific, Joker is a refreshingly bold attempt to do something with a well known comic-book character that doesn't involve expensive CGI-laden battles.
9/10. The only part that I didn't like was where it is revealed that Arthur's relationship with his pretty neighbour has been a figment of his imagination. I think most people would have got this without the need to spell it out for them.