A new look at an iconic villain.

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2019)

Joker is the name Gotham citizens fear the most. Joker is the idea that brings fear and chaos to the streets of Gotham. Joker is the enemy that tempts Batman to do the unthinkable. We have seen all that before as audiences but what we have never seen is Arthur Fleck. A man suffering from multiple mental illnesses that have gone unaddressed and untreated.
This movie is way more disturbing than ever imaginable. It's an unflinching look at a man whose mind is in fractures and reality has began blending with delusion and fantasy as the streets of Gotham unravel and become unruly. Arthur laughs uncontrollably and has a card he presents to a woman and her child explaining it is a condition. Arthur slides further away from reality when the truths he once believed about his childhood are revealed to be lies and everything he knows may not even be real.
Visually bleak through out, the only real color appears in the make up that Arthur applies to himself. We can see the transformation star Joaquin Phoenix had to endure both physically and mentally in order to portray this character. Phoenix dances and smokes and lets out eerie laughter that will leave you cringing when he begins to up the ante and take life itself. As he does so a revolution that divides the upper class and the poor begins to erupt on the streets. Arthur desires to be a comedian but is laughed at and his laughs come just a beat off from the rest of the audience as we see just how unstable his mind truly is. His interactions as we get closer to the end are more and more volatile with increased tension and less predictability in how it plays out.
It truly is one of the most uncomfortable films that I have ever watched. Mostly because we see mental illness on the daily and how it damages people and leaves people feeling neglected and lost. If you remove all traces of the name Joker and all traces of the name Wayne and Gotham this film is still an unsettling look into a fractured mind that went ignored and could have been saved. One of the most polarizing films of 2019 as there are zero positive moments. It had moments of pure awkwardness (after Arthur kills a colleague, but let's a short person leave who is unable to reach the locked door) as well as moments that will break your heart (when you realize that the Arthur's relationship with a fellow tenant is all in his head). It works on the merit that it will always be willing to go where you least expect the narrative to go. It doesn't have the moments audiences are used to when Batman stops the unnerving moments from happening. It's a complete stand a lone film that creates and develops a completely new version of a villain that is iconic in nature.
It compares to the legendary portrayals of the past and is a film regardless of how one felt about it will be talked about for a while to come. If Phoenix doesn't score a nomination for Best actor next year then the single best lead performance of the decade will go overlooked. If this does not get a best picture nomination then the only film that bears a comic book name and to efficiently and realistically tackle mental illness on screen will also be overlooked. As uncomfortable as I felt at times, this is a necessary film to maybe guise itself under being a comic book based move while simultaneously reminding audiences to never be afraid to seek the help you need. We don't need to have the level of rebellion seen in this movie to make a difference and end the gap between the rich and the struggling. All we need is more compassion than the fictional Thomas Wayne showed in this film.
It's not the type of movie that will wow you with the action or impress you with the cool space sequence. It's definitely unlike any previous comic book movie to date. Phoenix has definitely cemented himself as a legendary Joker performer as he did so without a Batman to play off of and did so will presenting a truly haunting look at a man plagued by his own mind.
It truly is one hell of an experience and one hell of a film. If you come out of this uneasy and unsure exactly where it leaves you in your own mind then you grasped the entirty of the movie and then some. If you are uncomfortable with extreme depression, extreme delusional actions and violence as a result of a decaying mind then I strongly suggest you avoid this movie. It's the one movie no one will fault you for skipping. Everything it accomplished is meant to be done to the extreme in order to make you see how this all happened and to bring a little bit of humanity to a character that has often been criticised for having none at all.