Joaquin Phoenix's incredibly chilling performance as a standalone version of The Joker

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 2019)

Joker was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and it certainly lived up to all the hype. Although the movie starts off slow, once the ball gets rolling it gets better and better. In a word, the movie was incredible. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing as Arthur Fleck who slowly descends into madness as he adopts his alter ego Joker.
Set in Gotham City in 1981, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) works as a clown who is barely clinging onto his day job. Arthur suffers from a neurological condition that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times and is also seeing a psychologist who encourages him to keep a journal as well as prescribing him medication for his mental illness. Arthur also lives with his ailing and mentally ill mother Penny (Frances Conroy) in a downtrodden apartment. Arthur also aspires to become a stand up comedian which attracts the attention of talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) of whom Arthur idolises. After several events which contributes to Arthur's self destruction and descent into madness, Arthur adopts his alter ego Joker and blazes a trail of murder, chaos and delusional behaviour.
Although Joker is set in the DC Comics universe, Joker does well as a standalone movie going back to the beginning and director Todd Phillips (The Hangover) is handed the creative reigns to do whatever he wanted with the infamous character in an alternate world that completely detaches itself from the Batman series.
Joaquin Phoenix was amazing and I'm tipping that he will be netting several awards for his performance. Putting aside the previous performances of Joker in the past, Joaquin Phoenix earns himself a spot amongst elite company alongside Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Cesar Romero and Jared Leto who have portrayed the Joker in past movies and TV shows.
Robert De Niro is excellent as TV show host Murray Franklin of whom Arthur Fleck idolises. Robert De Niro's character pays homage to his character in The King of Comedy (1983).
Zazie Beetz (Deadpool) does a great job as Arthur's sympathetic neighbour of whom he befriends.
Frances Conroy does well as Arthur's ailing mother who is also suffering a mental illness that may have been passed onto her troubled son.
Many themes the movie explores include mental illness which is a major focus point throughout the movie as well as bullying, dealing with traumatic events, abuse, neglect, and failings of the government including unemployment, rising crime rates, and the broken medical system which take place in an alternate Gotham City.
Joker also paid homage to the classic movie Taxi Driver (1976) also starring Robert De Niro who played the troubled anti-hero Travis Bickle who too, descended into self destructive behaviour, similar to Arthur Fleck's Joker.
Intense, violent, shockingly realistic, and a chilling performance from Joaquin Phoenix left me lost for words long after the end credits rolled as I left the cinema. Joker was an amazing film and I can safely say that it is one of the best films of 2019.
9/10