Bone-Chilling Cinematographic Excellence

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2020)

Joaquin Phoenix delivers a bone-chilling performance as a creepy, out-of-shape, mentally ill from head trauma clown. Just the way he walks and laughs is enough to set you off. Add this to brilliant screenwriting and beautiful cinematography and you get Joker. Arthur, as he is called in this version of the universe, is an awkward, down-on-his-luck and mentally ill clown living in seemingly deplorable conditions with his old mother, although he himself looks to be at least in his 40s. He's constantly met with rudeness by other people being visibly lower-class and strange. He suffers beat-downs by upper class individuals but doesn't show any signs of being an aggressive person at the beginning of the movie. It's the exasperation of his life that decays into madness that then decays into a killing mania. The movie is focused solely on the Joker and his transformation from a pathetic second-class individual to the maniac killer that we know. The dialogue is interesting, the pictures are wonderful, the soundtrack is great, the acting is stunning. A full 2 hours of cinematographic excellence. One thing that would have made this movie a perfect 10 for me would have been something like a bit of a constrast to the Joker by another character. Unfortunately the movie focuses almost entirely on Joker and very little on his surroundings and other people. Which makes the movie completely freakish from a to z with almost no glimpse of normalcy but also no depth to any other character. Maybe it was intended that way and I can appreciate that, it is nonetheless a masterpiece.