Great film

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2020)

If you're looking for a movie to fall asleep to with your family, find another movie. Joker is exciting, mysterious, breathtaking, dark, and tragic. Unlike the rest of the joker movies, you truly get to experience the making of the joker character.
It starts with a mentally deranged man named Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix who displays the best performance of his career and arguably the best of all joker movies. Joker does his best to make a living as a clown in effort to support him and his mother. Both of the two have spent time in the Arkham insane asylum in the past due to mental illness. But Arthur is different, he has a condition due to a brain injury where he laughs uncontrollably in terrible moments. This is shown in a scene where he is on a subway, dressed in his dusty clown costume and makeup, accompanied by three businessmen and a woman. The three men start to pick on the woman and Arthur starts laughing uncontrollably, grabbing the attention of the men. They then approach Arthur, while singing Frank Sinatra's "Send In The Clowns" adding irony, since the event that is about to occur started a crazed movement of clowns throughout Gotham. As the men start to beat up Arthur, he panics and grabs his gun from his pocket and fires, killing two of the three. He then wounds the final one and, after a little chase, finishes him. Although this scene may be difficult to watch for some viewers because of its dark purpose, it sparks the fantastic plot for this movie; the fight between the rich and poor accidentally started by the joker. Whether good or bad in intention, Joker is truly the hero in this movie for unintentionally representing all of the least fortunate population of Gotham by standing up to these businessmen, inspiring many riots and drastic events such as the death of Bruce Wayne's parents.
The makeup and costumes are unbelievably perfected in this movie, representing not just how the joker looks, but how he feels as well. In the beginning, the joker is very depressed, a castaway from society, scared of everything and it is expressed through his dusty clown costume. After killing those men on the subway and being invited to the Murray Franklin show, where he openly admits his killings, he is positive that his life is nothing but a comedy and his confidence has skyrocketed at this moment, shown through his marvelous red suit and his dancing scene. This scene consists of him dancing excitedly down the stairs that he had to climb up, showing his unmotivated and sad mood, multiple times earlier in the movie, and his appearance proves a total change in his outlook and mood on life. The sound in this scene also beautifully represents his change in mood, with the hype song "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter. Background sound consistent throughout the early part of the movie was very eerie and mysterious, nearly opposite of this song and his mood while dancing.
Overall, Joker, directed by Todd Philips, is a fantastic movie and it is necessary to witness for anyone with a strong will to withstand such a dark script and plot line. The acting, makeup, costumes, and sound are all perfectly fitted to the storyline of the joker and this fit is the best I have ever seen in a movie.