When comic book nerds want to feel sophisticated...

Rating: 3/10 (29 October 2019)

This movie is beautiful. Phoenix gives a great performance. So why such a low rating? Because this movie is so obviously derivative of Taxi Driver and King of Comedy that Phillips acknowledged it by casting De Niro. But that is not its worst offense. The worst offense is that it ultimately signifies nothing. Since we have an unreliable POV of what actually transpires, after we are shown that Arthur fantasizes his romantic relationship, which was played as real, and his initial appearance on the Murray Franklin show, which was presented falsely in a stylized manner, we don't have any means to discern what was just hallucinations and what was intended to be fact.
But who cares? Was Arthur a misunderstood comic genius, a doting son, a vigilante for subway justice, a disowned spawn of a heartless titan of industry, a nurturing lover to a lonely single mother? We don't know the veracity of any interaction in the entire runtime of this movie because nothing is clearly real or false for us to invest our care.
Phoenix gives an awesomely weird performance nonetheless. That, and the impeccable production design, is all this movie has going for it. That is what elevates this from being a complete ripoff of better filmmakers and a totally pointless endeavor. Still, the financial success of this movie baffles me. Why do comic fanboys love to see the death of Batman's parents replayed ad nauseam? What insight did this provide into either iconic character which hadn't already been alluded to in more artful ways? I'm hard pressed to find any need for this other than to cash in on the comics movie zeitgeist. It has definitely been successful in that regard.