No laughing matter

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2019)

Plot; A disturbed man adrift in the miasma of a dying city finally snaps and he proves to be the match to its gasoline.
The Joker is, without much debate, the most iconic and beloved comic book villain of all-time. Through the years, there have been several rather diverse interpretations of the character, but I dare say there hasn't been one like this.
Joker plays like an homage to Scorsese's Taxi Driver w/a splash of his King of Comedy thrown in for good measure. Drowning in the zeitgeist of early 80s New York (Gotham here, but we all know Gotham has always served as an avatar for the Big Apple), the atmosphere alone feels like you're wearing a soaking wet overcoat. And then we meet Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). He's a man hanging by his very last string whose grip on sanity is a fragile house of cards. You're just marking time until he snaps, but that's not to say the wait is uninteresting. Exactly the opposite. Phoenix is mesmerizing. Watching him here is to see the difference between an actor and an artist.
I'll leave interpretation of its themes to the viewer, as it's likely to differ from person to person. That says a lot about how subtly deep this film is.
We live in the golden era of the comic book movie. At some point it'll end, won't it? We'll get burned out of watching grown people in costumes or the quality will sag. But right now, at this moment, it's a rich and surprisingly diverse tapestry and the real joke is on the movie snobs who refuse to admit it.