Superb portrayal of a mentally ill man

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2019)

I rarely see movies in theaters, usually because I find the hype is not all it is cracked up to be. The last movie I saw in theater was 'A Quiet Place," and the hype for it was consistent for me (won't bore you w/reasons why, different review), so "Joker" brought me out of my theater slump and sadly, the hype for it is misguided.
This is a fantastically well done and well acted movie about a severely mentally unwell man and a system that fails him, repeatedly. Phoenix absolutely deserves an Oscar for his portrayl of Arthur.
However, this is a terrible movie about a super villain or the origin of "The Joker." I did not see nor was I disturbed by any so-called "violence." In fact, I felt the movie sorely lacked it. Where was the homicidal rage? A cpl murders a homocidal maniac doesn't make. In fact, I felt nothing for the few victims of Arthur's. They all deserved it. I felt sympathy the entire movie for Arthur. I wanted him to off ppl b4 he did it and frankly silently cheered for him when he did. This makes me want to cheer for the Joker in any future installements of Batman movies versus cheering for Batman. It is due to this, I feel the movie failed. It failed in making me feel anything but sympathy for Arthur/Joker and it failed at making him a scary, homicidal maniac. It simply made him a broken man, whom his entire life had endured horrible abuses, snapped one day, and decided no more. 7/10 for amazing acting and the mental health portrayl it truly was.