The Joker was a wonderfully dark masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2019)

This dark, slow burn origin story of the Batman villain, the Joker, left you feeling unsettled and thoughtful. This film depicts a dark side of society and how it corrodes a man's life and leads him down a path of insanity and deviance. There is a theme of mental illness that outlines this movie, societies disregard for it creates a helpless feeling of a downward spiral. What little hope of happiness or at least contentment that you have for the main character is tragically crushed by the last half of the movie.The cinematography was beautiful with excellent use of color, making it aesthetically pleasing even though the subject matter puts a rock in your stomach. Joaquin Phoenix is hypnotizing to watch, he did an amazing job in this role that maybe even matches up to Heath Ledger's take on the Joker in The Dark Knight. The movie should be called "Arthur" and not Joker because Phoenix is only actually the infamous villain for the last ten minutes of the film, it is very much an origin story of his life leading up to the making of the villain. I was honored to witness Todd Philip's creation, however it is a very heavy film that I would not sit down to watch on a relaxing Sunday night.