Oscar worthy performance does not necessarily make a good movie

Rating: 4/10 (19 January 2020)

How joker is going to be played out is very apparent in its first scene where Arthur gets jumped by a gang of teenagers who steal his sales sign and beat him up by the end of the scene. Since we are going to assume we all know Joker is going to turn into a villain the first scene is just a hint of how that is going to happen, with life mercilessly kicking him in the gut. Movie tries it best to provoke sympathy for him and shows how EVERYTHING has to go wrong for him. Everyone is mean to him and there is no other option but to go mad it looks like. This movie lacks any form of subtlety, gray area or dimension. It has one thing to show, that is a descent of slightly neurotic person into a mad man and it makes sure we know why that happens. Having said that the movie is visually stunning and Phoenix gives one of the most intense performances you would ever see. This movie in parts felt like a vehicle to bring out the performance which will guarantee him an Oscar.