A Very Competent Film

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2020)

Like this movie or not, you have to agree its at least a breath of fresh air. Phoenix does a great job at channeling just the right amount of psycho to portray the Joker.
The cinematography and lighting is very well done and really sets the atmosphere. While I agree with some that the morales of the movie can be misconstrued, it seems to be about coming out of your shell to be your true self and not caring what others think.
I did feel at times the movie was a bit preachy though. The whole "we live in a society..." comes off rather strong towards the end. Society and rich people = bad!! That was a bit too on the nose.
I also never really got the notion that this Joker was clever or intelligent in this movie. He just seemed psychotic. Which is really only a small part of what makes the character scary.
Now, I get that its from the Jokers point of view, but the Waynes and almost ALL other characters are just shown to be total one dimensional a-holes that we dont really have sympathy for. This could have been handled better I believe.
BUT, what makes these bad things listed above so interesting, is the very real possibility that the events in the film were actually all in the Jokers mind. Its established early on that he has delusions often, so the entire revolution and his rise to hero status could have very well been all imagined, which makes a lot of sense.
In conclusion though, I appreciated the risks the movie took and performance given by Phoenix. It was a fresh take on an already well established character, which can be difficult to do. And considering all of the god awful movies released now a days, I cant blame people who praise it as a perfect 10. Its deff worth it to give it a watch for yourself.