Engrossing.

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2019)

It has been a long time since I have left a theater thinking about the themes and overall message of the movie. The film got me thinking of everyone's place in society and the treatment and amount of respect they all receive whether they be rich, poor, or middle class. The film was able to convey the struggles and ambitions of the lower class through the well-defined protagonist Arthur Fleck, played brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix was able to add more depth to the complex character of the Joker by being the main character of the movie, which is missing in Heath Ledger's performance. When comparing the performances of Phoenix and Ledger, I would say they are both equally spectacular because they are achieving different goals in playing the character. Ledger plays the main villain in the Dark Knight who is going for a comic accurate representation of the Joker while also being threatening and horrifying to capture the horror of a terrorist. However, Phoenix wants to explore how the character can be terrifying through a character study that portrays the Joker to be a regular man with a disability being beaten down by society until he snaps and becomes a psychopath.
Although the film is similar to Taxi Driver and other Martin Scorsese films in terms of plot, tone, and film making, the writer and director, Todd Philips, uses the characters of Joker and the Wayne family for social commentary that reflects the political and social climate of our society while also being an original Joker origin story. Something I respect from this movie was being able to separate itself from any previous DC movies in the DC cinematic universe and become a self-contained standalone low-budget movie that is a breath of fresh air for superhero movies. Another aspect I like of the film was how the media was portrayed that can resemble today from the violence on the news to the topics talk shows ridicule. Speaking of violence, I thought it was handled appropriately in a sequence of events that perfectly develops the ideology of the Joker and not make it feel gratuitous. The fantasy scenes could have easily been an unnecessary element in the film and would only be there from one of the films it was inspired by, but they were able to fit in thematically as part of Arthur's mental illness.
I could see some people absolutely hating this movie either for the violence or the fact it's a comic book movie and there will be some people who will love the movie for similar reasons like mine. Whatever is said regarding the movie, it was a bit of a risk for the studio to release something that is against the usual superhero formula and still make a profit from it. In the end, I want more movies like Joker that can take an intellectual property and make something brilliant or weird from it, which may make money depending on how it is marketed and made.