Nice original and thankfully different take on the comic book genre

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2019)

I've already read so much about this film before and after seeing it that adding my own thoughts feels like a chore if not also downright unnecessary. It's almost as if the movie and the "stuff around the movie" can't be separated and it was only after reading my 17th think piece on the matter when I realized that was exactly the point. This isn't a great film; no film (or more accurately: script) that has its titular character stating the theme of the film as a line of dialogue at the very climax of said film can be. This movie exists to agitate, to push some buttons, ruffle some feathers. It's a bully at the town pool and it doesn't know how to swim, so it can't leave the shallow end. Some of its punching is so secondary and unnecessary (the entire "Kill the Rich" subplot that subsequently becomes the basis for the film's most elaborate set-piece, for example), that it hasn't even dented the conversation. I haven't heard a single talking head say this is going to inspire Occupy Wall Street 2 and that freaking stinks, to be honest. It's all incel this, Aurora shooting that. We're a culture hooked on buzz and if you throw enough darts, you'll get one or two to stick.
It's not all bad and extra-circulars. Todd Phillips, who shouldn't be let anywhere near a screenplay let alone a computer, a pen, a quill and ink dip even, is actually a competent director. Phillips and his crew have produced a really nice-looking picture. The action looks good and the actors are doing what they can with the material, which is to say they're going above and beyond. And of course, it's all tied together by Joaquin Phoenix. If the film alone is a 2, and the stylization/tones adds 1, then Phoenix by himself doubles that score and makes this a 6/10. As he's done before, he transfixes and amuses, befuddles and transcends. He's acting his little heart out. It's worth a recommendation just to see. Oh, well, that and of course not wanting to be left out of the "cultural conversation," god forbid.