It was slow burn cliche film and I blame director for it

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2019)

"Joker" (2019), set in 1981 fictional Gotham City, is the latest DC feels dark film with an obvious "Taxi Driver" (1974), "Network" (1976), "The King of Comedy" (1982) and "V for Vendetta" (2005) influence that shows how society of today is treating poor, disenfranchised and mentally ill with potential consequences of such inaction. "Joker"is undoubtedly a one-man show with an integral reliance on Phoenix being the right lead. Here he is very good in his portrayal of 'Arthur Fleck', a delusional and impoverished clown-for-hire (that sucks at his job) with an uncontrollable laughing condition who descends into the chaos that is the legend of his (Batman mythology) character. When he dances on the long concrete stairway with Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" soundtrack, it's a moment of transcendent insanity going with the flow of his madness and it awesomely done. As a film, its predictable, occasionally surprisingly dull and not a particularly good one. Basically, a former comedy director uses the 122 min film as a character study or as a journey into evil, but he is doing it in a such way that is so cliche. Almost everything we see is so familiar - mishmash of other movie borrowed parts - which is actually boring. Beautiful cinematography and physically transformative performances here are merely clown's makeup that distracts viewers from way to simplistic script and shallow directing. Arthur's love interest (Zazie Beetz) was wasted as a character who doesn't need to be there at all and serves no purpose, which is also the case with some other sub-plots. I'm disappointed. Movie is big marketing and hype DC machine release.
RATING: 6, Just because of Joaquin Phoenix.