Blow Expectations Out of the Water.

Rating: 10/10 (6 October 2019)

Review:
'Joker' is an American psychological-thriller film directed by Todd Phillips. Being one of my most anticipated movies of the year as well as a movie I never wanted to be made, I was feeling so many different emotions on my way to the theatre to see this film. I needed time to think about it and process what I had just seen because the movie is very dark and heavy, and after doing so I believe this is my favorite film to come out of 2019.
The movie follows the character of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) who is working as a clown-for-hire while living with and caring for his mother, Penny (Frances Conroy) in Gotham City. We see Arthur get beaten down by society both literally and figuratively, from being jumped in an alley to being fired from his job and being called crazy and useless. Slowly over time, he starts thinking his life is a comedy and transforms into the clown he has been portraying for years.
If Joaquin Phoenix doesn't at least get an Oscar nomination for his portrayal in this movie I will be both surprised and disappointed. What he did to prepare for this role was incredible and he brought everything to every scene he was in. Everybody in this movie fit their roles perfectly, but other than Joaquin Phoenix another standout performance for me has to be Robert De Niro. He wasn't in the film a whole lot, but I really believed he could have been a Talk-Show Host. He didn't phone it in at all and really committed which I appreciated.
I really can't talk about what I liked in this movie without going into spoiler territory. However, I will say that the movie needed to be Rated-R and I'm so happy Todd Phillips pushed the Studio into letting that happen. There were certain scenes that I could tell if they tried to do the same thing in a PG-13 film, it wouldn't have worked. They were also very smart in showing Arthur slowly progress into the Joker we know and it didn't just all happen at once, he hated his life in the beginning and dragged his feet when he walked, and by the end he is carrying himself with confidence.
Overall, I really can't say a lot about this movie beside I loved it! I beg for everybody to go and see this movie in theatres, movies like this deserve to make money so original films like this can be made. Yes, even though this is based off a 'Batman' character, it is still a very original story and I highly recommend.
5/5