No joke here. The phoenix has truly risen. Joaquin really deserve his Oscar.

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2020)

Todd Phillips has a very unique approach to writing and directing a comic book flick. Instead of having a lot of typical fantasy like tropes. This motion picture went for the more ground crime drama character study story with DC Comics Batman's arch nemesis 'The Joker'. Something that a lot of fans kinda wanted. After all, while a number of backstories have been given in the comics, a definitive one has not yet been established for the clown prince of crime. However, fans of the psychopath criminal mastermind version of him will probably not like this movie. This form has him as a somewhat mentally disable impoverished depress comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) whose descent closer into insanity and nihilism when disregarded by society in a decaying Gotham City during 1981. Let's face it. The character is far cry departure from the versions we got in previous movies. He's less a villain and more like an antihero in this film. Arthur just wants people to be happy. Losing 52 pounds, Joaquin does portray the naïve starving artist well. The scenes where his rib cage is visual are quite upsetting. The way Phoenix walks up the stairs with his shoulder slumped down show how downtrodden Arthur really is. Great use of body language. The facial expressions including the makeup run offs that Joaquin does are also well perform. Whenever Arthur's condition caused him to uncontrollably laugh. His mouth opens way too wide that it looks distressing. On several occasions they are indistinguishable from his sobbing. It really illustrated Arthur's declining mental state. However, the film is so heavily influence by Martin Scorsese's 1976 movie 'Taxi Driver' & 1982 'King of Comedy' that many of this film scenes felt like clichés reenactments like the fake out shot me sign moment involving love interest Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz). Another bothersome I got was due to the character's chronic daydreaming, it makes the audience question just how much of the film, we see is happening in real time and how much of it is Arthur's fantasizing. Because of that the movie has a lot of deliberately somewhat annoying open-ended plot holes. For example, how he was able to get away with so many murders. Killing a patient at the hospital without setting off the alarm on the heart monitor machine and even being allowed in the building after an infamous previous gun accident seem unlikely. That or the cops really slow to arrested people. After all Arthur has plenty of time to sleep, get dress, eat and murder a coworker after breaking in a neighbor's room. The logic in these scenes are a bit annoying as the entire ending plays like a deranged hallucination rather than a genuine series of events. The whole idea of the Wayne family seeing a movie during the riots seem a bit forced. In truth I don't think the film never really figured out a true decent climax. That's why I believe when Arthur told the psychiatrist that she wouldn't get the joke. I think the whole story might have been made up, in order to troll the whole audience to feel sympathy for him and his crimes. Whether Arthur becomes the actual Joker as seen in traditional Batman lore or inspires a separate character is ambiguous. Either way, Arthur will be an old man by the time Batman is established. Regardless the film is a little too heavy handed and preachy when it comes to dealing with people with mental health. After all, none of the supporting characters Arthur hurts really deserve their punishment besides the three oddly seem out of place rich guys on the train. None of them are fully evil to be sympathetic. Some of them honestly are friendly and help Arthur more than they harm such as giving him protection and a chance to redeem himself on television when they could had run away. As of Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) he gave Arthur the truth about his origin even after what the unstable man did to him. Although how much of a jerk he is left up to the viewer's interpretation of what Arthur's origins truly was. With that it's really hard to believe that Fleck would repress the abusive memories of his past for that long. Still I do dig the theories involving that. I just wish the film had more comic book references rather than the small mentions. As for shouts out to other media. The best use has to be Charlie Chaplin's 1936's film 'Modern Times'. Not only is the movie's footage visual in the movie, but the cover of "Smile" is haunting along with Stephen Sondheim's 'Send in the Clowns' song. I like that the music is generally discordant, unsettling and tonally dissonant. It reflects Arthur's feverish mental state so well. The sequence involving dancing on the stairs is so iconic. I really like how the sets & locations looks. It's an urban nightmare. No wonder why Arthur went crazy. As for the controversy surrounding the film revolves around being sympathetic towards killers & this movie might inspiring copycats. I understand why. It wasn't even shown in certain parts of Colorado due to the 2012 Aurora shooting. Many police forces and even the US Army were also put on alert when this flick was released in theaters. In the end, the film still got the last laugh as it made a ton of money. However, Warner Bros did make a movie that push buttons with its themes in class warfare and gun control that I doubt a sequel would be made. They don't even considered part of the DC Extended Universe. Instead, it is an Else worlds story. In the end, while entertaining & thought provoking at certain parts. It's still a disturbing film. The film presents no solutions, promotes despair and really is a glorification of violence. Just know that when seeing this movie. It's one film that certainly not to have a happy ending.