Decent.

Rating: 7/10 (21 October 2019)

It is pretty much what I expected: a decent movie but not a masterpiece by any means.

SPOILER FREE PART -

The joker is a character study movie about the origins of the character, so of course the movie is entirely centered by him in almost every scene. Joaquin Phoenix I think did a pretty good job considering he plays such a huge role and I can't think of a moment where his acting was off, it all felt very convincing. I like the fact that his laugh was an unconditional mental illness thing and you can really tell that despite the smile he's very pained. You can definitely relate to him at times and feel his sadness, his frustrations, it's all portrayed very well. So hats off to Phoenix, he was one of the best parts of the movie. Aside from maybe two or three characters (and Joker), the remainder cast was very one dimensional and are a bit underdeveloped in a sense, and that's fine I guess considering how much screentime joker gets versus any other character.
In terms of story it's serviceable, it's got its fair share of "hiccups" but thankfully not many at the last scenes. It's on the third act where things matter the most for this type of story and in the end that act was incredibly satisfying. I won't mention the details yet, but I'd say what you expect is what you get at the end and it'll leave you very pleased, so look forward to that.
There's something to be said about this movie not having any sense of cleverness or wit, though, as I felt the message was very hammered in, quite literally shouting at your face at times, and there were plenty moments I thought were unnecessary or could use a grain of subtlety. Something less shoehorned that would've make it all the better but instead you're fed information that you already chewed, and fed so in such a gratuitously obvious way that made me go and think to myself,"do they think we're that dense?". Also since this takes part in Gotham and the DC universe, expect some scenes that you can barely call "easter-eggs" of you-know-who, something that felt very forced and REALLY could've been toned down a bit.

SPOILER PART -

My biggest gripe with the story was with the female love interest character, a neighbor of the main character. I liked the idea that he fantasized (or hallucinated) her there by his side and the fact that she might've represented a person he needed most at his time of need, like during his big comedy gig or at his mom's hospital. Whenever she showed up I was always a little skeptical of it, not entirely fitting the pieces together until a bit before the moment of big reveal. By then I feel like mostly anyone would've figured that out especially when he goes to her apartment and she expresses clear discomfort to his presence, and yet they HAD to include flashback scenes of all the times she wasn't really there, making it painfully obvious by showing a shot of him with her, shot of him not with her, shot of him with her, shot of him not with her.
Speaking of, any of the scenes with Bruce were painfully forced and didn't need to be there at all. It could've very much been an easter egg that this was set in that particular moment in his life, but they had to add so many shots of it. Shot of Joker and young Bruce at the mansion, shot of the Wayne family leaving the cinema. At that point everyone would've known, anyone in the audience knows Batman's backstory after all, but it keeps going. Shot of the Wayne family heading to a dark alleyway. Shot of Protester going the same alleyway and shooting Thomas Wayne. Dramatic shot of young Bruce looking at the dead bodies of his parents. It was just... lame, it's not exciting at all, it's just lame.
The movie also starts with a scene of him dressed up as a clown... holding a sign that says "everything must go"... and then being beaten by a bunch of kids for no apparent reason. It led me to believe this movie was going to be an egregious experience with just how corny it is. You can make the argument that it's purposely corny but regardless of whether it is or it isn't that scene was one of my least favorite and perhaps something about it could've been re-written.
The final act like I said was very satisfying, having Joker yell at this man who's an "icon" of the big screen, for things he's very much justifiable for being mad about was very cathartic. I wouldn't say that his actions were justified but it didn't matter, he's a villain after all, and I enjoyed every second of it. It was very tense, it was very gripping, I loved it.
There are other moments that bothered me a bit, the murder of the three men that immediately led to a protest and a news headline that said nothing but "KILL THE RICH." How the Joker entered from this large protest to this fancy building and the music immediately shifts to this stereotypical violin music whose frequencies could probably be translated to "I AM VERY RICH." Again, the beginning scene with him as a clown with that sign and being bullied was so corny, etc., etc.
But in the end I'm still very happy with it. I would come back and watch it again especially for that last act. I thought Joaquin Phoenix's acting that was very convincing, other characters like Murray by Robert De Niro were also pretty entertaining. It wasn't exactly as good as I expected it to be but it was still pretty good none the less. Solid 7/10.