Tragically Satisfying Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2020)

This film gave me one of the most unique and moving cinematic experiences I've ever had. It was not the type of movie I was expecting when I walked in to a completely full theatre on a weeknight a few weeks after it had released, and it made that very clear in the first 5 minutes.
Phoenix's performance was one of the best performances I could recall ever seeing after leaving the theatre, better than just the best performance of 2019. I was in disbelief that the person I was watching on the screen was Joaquin Phoenix - from start to finish he was unrecognizably dedicated to playing the role and highly emotionally provocative. The cinematography was phenomenally uncomfortable, the score was hauntingly brilliant, the character development was unrivaled, the supporting cast were well selected, and the movie pacing was uniquely captivating. This was also the best Gotham city setting to me so far. The film setting drew me in and made me feel filthy. This is much closer to how I had imagined the crime ridden city being relative to other movies set in Gotham. The metaphors and the score from the film were particularly powerful. There is ever present audience gripping tension starting from the first minute of the film until the ambiguous ending. You could really feel the emotional involvement for Arthur from the entire audience in the theatre - the surprising strong empathy people were experiencing for a foreseeable villain.
The final 45 minutes of this film are truly some of the best cinema ever produced. The transformative final scenes are definitely where I can see the term masterpiece come into play. The audience and I alike were completely stunned at some of the scenes - a few definitely hair raising, chillingly iconic. This was not simply a shut-your-brain-off for 2 hours entertainment movie - more so a movie of great importance that's thought provoking throughout and will absolutely move the viewer to self reflect.