should have called him the Smoker... cough, cough

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2020)

Well, I didn't like that they changed the origin story of the main character, and within that, the origin story of Batman. I liked the originals. And, for one and a half hours, this film felt like it was "beating a dead horse" - Arthur is mentally ill, in a desperate time, with no more social services. And he's slipping into madness. Pause, repeat, repeat, for nearly 90 minutes. It's dark and traumatic, but its also boring, at that length. Phoenix does a good job of it, sort of combining Buffalo Bill from "Silence of Lambs" with the emaciated body of Trevor Reznik from "The Machinist", and to good effect, but no one could have kept that up in an interesting manner for that long.
The last half hour is better, and lays a solid foundation for how the Joker gains power, almost despite himself. His look, and his laugh, turn more to the classic version of the character and has more of the feel of the Joker I grew up with. But, I don't know that I'd watch this again, and certainly not as often as I've re-watched "The Dark Knight" since it came out. This almost might have been a better movie if it wasn't about the Joker at all, and just about some how some crazy man came to be and came to power. Knock, knock...