Film-maker makes film inspired by much better film-makers

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2019)

Two points: Comic Book movies are overplayed, as non-union CGI 'teams' pipeline the shots and the company makes off with most of the money.
Second point: Joker is NOT a CGI/superhero type movie! It's a 'drama' about a loner who's gritty, depressive, troubled life leads to accidental freak acts of urban violence; the alienated counterculture (who in this case, are not liberal-democratic progressives, but basically nihilistic alt.right losers) cheer him on.
Needless to say, the film is 'daring' for confronting the vast income divide, alienation and random violence in American life in 2019. Now for the the reason I give the movie six out of ten: I'M NOT A SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD!! I've already seen the outstanding film King of Comedy, which is just wonderful, and many, many film critics have plastered analysis, superlatives and screen shots from Taxi Driver in magazines everywhere. Interviews where Joaquin Phoenix claims there was 'no mention of these films during production' or 'no intentional references in the movie' are just polite lies. The film is NOT original, despite it's retro genre styling and the fact that it is basically repellent, signalling to auds that this is a (bleurgghh!) comic-book movie that isn't afraid to totally break with commercial conventions.
Is the film great? No. It's narrow, manipulative and secondary characters get occasionally lazy narrative threads. Is Phoenix good? YES - he does some weird stuff, like getting into a fridge, or doing a little interpretive dance in a grimy public bathroom near a subway. The main reason this film is selling well is lack of important material during it's release date.