The king is dead.. Long live the king!

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2019)

Despite the title, I'm not going to compare Joaquin's Joker with Heath's here. This is a different film altogether. Heath brought us a beautifully crafted fully formed joker in DK, JP however brings us Arthur Fleck in all his disturbed severely mentally ill glory. It would be like comparing a caterpillar to it's butterfly..
It's much less of a comic book movie than a horror film. In fact in parts of the film I forgot I was actually watching the formation of the joker, as Joaquin pulls us so deep into Arthur's illness, it becomes impossible to relate that character to anything remotely 'comic book'.
Joaquin Phoenix is exceptional in this movie and he has to be, there is no supporting cast as such for him to hide a shoddy performance, just transient characters that either serve to further provoke or highlight Arthur's illness. Todd Phillips did a marvelous job here of making all of the characters bar Arthur somewhat disposable, they exist but only as a tool for Joaquin to use to craft Arthur. Even Di Nero is a passenger here, his character just used as a catalyst for Arthur's eventual brutal full metamorphosis into Joker. With that said though he plays his role beautifully and it was wonderful to see that man back where he belongs in a piece of cinematic history. The climax of the scene between them is just a thing of absolute movie genius, crafted out by two of our times greatest actors.
I'm not sure how the movie got it's 15 rating here in the UK. The violence though not continuous is disturbing in it's realism, indeed the whole film felt 'adult'. It's definitely not a 15 that I'd be letting my 13 year old son watch anytime soon. I guess it's a box office thing!
In all honesty though as much as I loved this film, I don't know if I could give it a second watch. Maybe that will change over time but right now I feel it's a movie like the usual suspects or seven.. I want to hold onto the surprise of this film, because I went in expecting something entirely different to what I was presented with.
Joaquin's always been a slightly underrated actor for me. He's been nominated for three academy awards, most notably of which were best actor for Walk the line and best supporting actor for Gladiator, but has won none. His portrayal of Commodus especially was deserving of an Oscar. Tell me a movie villain you've ever hated more than that? I struggle to find one personally!! He MUST get an Oscar for this performance!!