Stands alone as a smart psychological thriller

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2019)

I saw this film last night, and believe me I could not wait to see it because it seemed like DC's last chance to redeem itself. I had high expectations based on the trailer, and for the most part they were met. I even postponed watching videos or reading reviews because I didn't want a single spoiler. But before I get into my actual review, let's briefly discuss the nonsense that has all the media's panties in a twist before the film even came out. There's so much BS about this potentially creating another Aurora shooter. What I think many failed to understand is that it was not superheroes or anything to do with Batman that created the Aurora shooter, he simply used that as a backdrop for something he already intended to do. When I came to the box office, there was a sign (and there were multiple signs like this around the theater) saying that no fake weapons (what about real weapons?), bags/backpacks, or makeup/masks were allowed in the theater, due the "heightened security" around the film. The only time I've ever seen that happen was when there was all that hype around Seth Rogen's The Interview, because of the fear of North Korea nuking us or something. If anything, the main message is that we should pay more attention to potential mass shooters and get them help before they go over the edge. It's not pro-mass shooter in any way. It's funny that it was initially the far right concerned about violent video games and movies, and then it was the far left, and now it's everyone on all sides of the aisle. I'll get off my soapbox and get into the movie.
First of all, Joaquin Phoenix was excellent in this film (as he is in most of his roles)! He really added emotional and physical aspects to this character (especially with the dancing) and I think very few actors could have performed as well as he did. Everyone in supporting roles did well also, Robert DeNiro in particular (who of course starred in Taxi Driver, which this film probably drew inspiration from).
One thing I did want to comment on was the weight loss gimmick. That and other components of this film remind me of The Machinist, which was probably best known for the weight loss and not much else, though I personally liked the film. Apparently Phoenix lost 52 pounds in several months! In other words, move over Christian Bale, Joaquin's coming for your record! (Funny that one of these actors portrayed Batman and another portrayed the Joker.) But from The Machinist onwards (and even before then with films like Raging Bull) actors losing or gaining tons of weight for a role has become commonplace, to the point where it doesn't really add to the character. Why is it that Arthur Fleck had to be so thin? What does that add to his character? If anything, it just makes it less believable that he had the strength to kill all those people. The whole point of actors losing or gaining weight for a role is it's supposed to make them more believable, because they look like the character they're playing. But neither The Machinist nor Joker provide an actual explanation as to why their protagonist looks the way he looks. My only theory is that it provides a physical analogue for how tormented their characters are. And I can personally vouch that people do tend to lose a lot of weight, sometimes to the point of becoming underweight, when they are depressed/stressed out or going through a more restrictive type of eating disorder like anorexia, ARFID, or forms of ED-NOS. So it's not entirely implausible that many people with severe mental illnesses can be underweight. (Then again, there are also plenty of overweight mentally ill people who stress eat and have a lot of cortisol in their system, but I guess portraying that doesn't get you dat sweet sweet Oscar buzz, does it?) So maybe I'm wrong.
But while we're on the subject of other psychological thrillers this film resembles, let's just say this film has a very predictable twist that most psychological thrillers these days steal from a certain movie that actually is celebrating its 20th anniversary of its release today. (For those who might be in a different time zone or see this long after I post it, that would be October 15th, which is also close to my 20th birthday!) I would make an obvious reference to said film, but I don't want to give it away that easily. I predicted the twist in Joker from the first moment it came into play, and was like "oh here we go again" and sure enough, I was right. (This is probably only because I've seen a lot of psychological thrillers/horrors and so I was conditioned to pick up the signs.) That being said, the twist wasn't incredibly integral to the film or anything, so it wasn't that bothersome. There was another thing I thought was going to happen in the way of a literal Chekov's Gun, but it actually ended up playing out in a different way. So at least that subverted my expectations *insert RedLetterMedia meme here*. Funnily enough, I went to see this film with my dad (we are both big DC/Batman fans) and he predicted the second twist but not the first, and I was the other way around.
I also liked how realistic this film was. Picking up from the Nolan Batman universe and moving the ball forward from a fantastical almost magical universe (as Burton and Shumacher envisioned) to a dark, gritty realistic universe quite like our own. The only unbelievable thing was that at one point Fleck gets full-on hit by a car and is apparently completely fine. (Hey, kind of like The Machinist!) Even the uncontrollable laughter is a real thing (when I was in a mental hospital, there was a woman with some form of catatonia, and one of the very few expressions she could make was uncontrollable laughter. It's apparently common in people with schizophrenia and related disorders, the proper term for it is "inappropriate affect").
That said, there were some pacing issues with this film, particularly at the end. There was a moment where it would have been perfect for the film to end, and yet the film dragged on for another 10-15 minutes. Other than that and the predictable plot twist, I really didn't have much issue with this role.
So you're probably wondering, do I think Joaquin Phoenix is the best Joker? I would say yes, but mostly because he gets so much screen time to develop his character. That and I like this particular portrayal of the Joker as a tormented and somewhat relatable soul. (However, the film did not glorify or excuse the violent actions of Arthur Fleck/The Joker in any way, unlike the likes of CNN would have you believe, it only provided a explanation for them.)
The funniest thing that came out of all of this that Jared Leto is apparently really butthurt that he didn't get a whole Joker movie to himself. Stay mad, Jared. You don't hold a candle to anyone else who's taken the gauntlet of the Joker role.