A chilling character study that works in spite of its cliche script.

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2019)

Joker is a character study about an insane person. It's not a comic book movie, it's not trying to be. Todd Phillips, who directed the Hangover movies, rose to the occasion here and made a solid origin story about the Joker. However, it's Joaquin Phoenix who makes it memorable and great.
The script has flaws, the biggest one being the lack of subtlety in the first half of the movie. I know it's not supposed to be subtle, but the way things constantly go wrong for Arthur - he gets beat up, he loses his job, he gets humiliated - is handled so clumsily.
There are a couple of shocking moments. There's a reason this gets compared to Taxi Driver. It's a little clunky at first, but things come together wonderfully in the last act. It's nice to see a movie from the villain's perspective for a change. Things are looking up for DC.