Legendary Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2020)

As I went into this movie I knew nothing but the fact that this won in Venice. Usually, even while seeing something like Parasite, people eat Popcorn an make a little bit of noise, but on this day me and everyone else were paralysed, not a single sound except this movie.
This movie excelled with stunning cinematography, directing sound design and shooting, but the music written by Hildur Gudnadotir and the unworldly performance of Joaquin Phoenix carried this movie from a masterpiece to a legend. To that came the story narrated in Arthur's perspective, which by the end made you question the realness of what you just saw. Many people take this as a gut punch, but to me, it was great writing.
Which brings me to the great story.(SPOILERS!!!). A story that perfectly captures the decent of a mentally sick loner who wants to do good to a murder happy psychopath. As we see him murder the bullies on the subway, you can see the Joker persona in the bathroom dance scene coming out and as the movie progresses overtake. But at this we still know or at least hope that he still isn't beyond saving. We see his relationship with his neighbour and the comedian success of Arthur and everything is going great. However as he finds out more about himself, he gets mocked on TV and learns his mums secret of allowing his corporal abuse by her lover to happen, we see his downfall happen when he murders his mum and finds out that his relationship with his neighbour and his comedian success all happened in his head. Then we get to see him practice a suicide and murdering Randall (his partner at work) in a brutal manner. Then in the iconic scene on Murray Franklin show, we all assume that he's going to commit suicide. As the scene goes on however, there's a little bit of suspense, because we don't know what will do. When he kills Murray, I didn't see this coming, although looking at it now, it's predictable. Then my favorite scene in the movie, him dancing on the burning car, while riots tear Gotham apart, birthing Batman in the process, we see not Arthur dancing, we see the Joker. At the end, contrary to many believes he is a villain not an Anti-Hero, as he embraces him self himself in the roll of the murderous clown we all know.
To wrap up, unbelievably well told story with a clear message, solid directing, cinematography, set design, sound design and shooting, however the acting by Phoenix and the at times melancholic, depressing, yet at other times dark and powerful music deliver this as a legendary movie that it is.