The most realistic Joker back-story there's ever been...

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2019)

As soon as the film begins, we aren't confronted with someone whose personality will make their journey to becoming The Joker a predictable one. The movie's director has wisely gone with the idea of having the audience experience every stage of Arthur Fleck's descent into insanity. Joaquin Phoenix's performance ably shows that outward circumstances created Batman's number one foe. He then becomes a more sympathetic character, even though he is gradually morphing into a monster. The shooting of the three bankers comes at a pint when all the bad things that have happened to Fleck psychologically overwhelm him.
From then on, all the people who have heaped misery onto his state of mind become the vat of chemicals that physically turned him into Joker. Near the end of the movie, Todd Phillips cleverly has Fleck's final murderous act becomes the catalyst for Bruce Wayne's parents to be murdered. Though it's a standalone film, this ending sets things up for the reboot of the Batman film franchise, in spite of that not being Phillips' intention. This movie deserves more than one Academy Award nomination and it deserves more than one Oscar win.