The Man who Laughs

Rating: 5/10 (13 October 2019)

Let Me start off by saying that when I have a hard time scoring a movie, I refer to my personal scale. I associate each number with a corresponding word/phrase; the scale is as follows:
1 - GOD-AWFUL
2 - Awful
3 - REALLY bad
4 - Bad
5 - Okay
6 - Good
7 - REALLY good
8 - Great
9 - DAMN-NEAR perfect
10 - PERFECT
My starting point with "Joker" was a 6 ("Good"); however, once I took into account the politics, comic INaccuracy, and the fact that it's essentially a rip-off of Mary Harron's "American Psycho", I settled on a score of 5.
Let's start with politics. Hollywood has it in their head that they're doing some sort of public service by shoving AT LEAST one political agenda down your throat with basically every movie (and T.V. show) these days. Although it was part of the story (and some would argue a "crucial" part of the story), there were definitely (unnecessary in my opinion) politics in this movie. The fact that Thomas Wayne couldn't be with Penny Fleck (Arthur/Joker's mother) because of public image; When funding was cut and Arthur no longer had a therapist and medication; When Arthur killed the three Wall Street boys (in self-defense) on the train. This last one's the most important; it's a re-occurring aspect of the movie. Towards the end of the movie (when Arthur's GONNA blow his brains out on the "Murray Franklin Show") Arthur points out that if he (or someone in the same social class as him) died, they'd just "walk over him", but since three perfect little Wall Street boys died, we should all be in mourning. I won't deny the fact that this is an important aspect of the movie, but again Hollywood thinks we "need" politics in everything nowadays.
Onto comic INaccuracy. It's no secret that this movie was never going to be a faithful adaptation of the Joker; however, (as someone who does read comics) I can't overlook the inaccuracies of this movie. Joker has had many origin stories over the years (since many authors have wanted a crack at one of "the greatest comic book villains of all time"), but the most common is the Red Hood story. Basically he's just a "normal" person who has to resort to crime to support his wife and baby-on-the-way when he has a run-in with Batman; this encounter ends with Joker falling into a vat of acid that: bleaches his skin, dies his lips blood-red and plasters a permanent smile on his face. In this movie however, Arthur takes medication (primarily) for Pseudobulbar Affect (P.B.A.), or uncontrollable laughing/laughing at random times. Although this "makes sense" for a Joker adaptation, it's NOT comic accurate. May I also just add that Joaquin's laugh in this movie is SO ANNOYING!? Pretty much every scene has random, unnecessary, annoying laughter!
My last point is that "Joker" is pretty much a knock-off version of "American Psycho". For those of you unfamiliar with the movie (based on Brett Easton Ellis's DARKLY satirical novel), it follows a Wall Street yuppie named Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) who fantasizes about murdering people. The book ends with Patrick confessing but you find out it was all in his head; the movie however, also ends with a (REAL) confession but nobody believes him. I bring this novel-turned-movie up because Patrick also keeps a diary/journal with drawings of what he does/wants to do to people, much like how Arthur writes down his jokes and has pictures of naked women in his diary/journal.
In conclusion, I never thought that even Joaquin Phoenix could defeat Heath Ledger and become "THE Clown Prince of Crime", but I though maybe he could at least match him. Did he? Performance-wise yes; however, the movie itself was good NOT great. Joker currently has a 8.9 here on IMDb, and (after scrolling through reviews) I've noticed that anything below a 9 only appears "once in a blue moon". The two people I went with both give it a 10/10 whereas I gave it a 5; maybe I'm crazy, maybe I read too many comics, or maybe I watch too many movies, but "That's Life..."