A deeply disturbing psychological thriller which deals with some mature themes

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2019)

This is a mature and complex psychological thriller disguised as a comic book movie. Joaquin Phoenix, one the greatest actors working today gives one of the best performances of his entire career. He once again proves his incredible range as an actor. He had big shoes to fill and he absolutely delivered. Todd Philips proves his versatility as a director, since this is a genre that he didn't have much experience with before.
It tackles some very relevant themes such as class divisions, loneliness, poverty and mental illness and all these themes were incorporated very well without being too on the nose. The incorporation of the Wayne family was also done very well, eventhough some people had issues with this aspect. The background score and cinematography were amazing and really helped to elevate certain scenes.
A lot of people had criticized the numerous similarities to taxi driver and the king of comedy. I am personally okay with some of these, since this was openly stated by the filmmakers and were intended to be homages. However at times the similarities are too obvious and it almost feels like a remake of taxi driver. I was hoping that the homages should've been presented in slightly more subtle manner so that the movie didn't have to lean so heavily on taxi driver