A great origin story.

Rating: 6/10 (5 October 2019)

I don't even know how to start with this review. I have so much to say I don't even know if there's enough space in a review.
Let's start off with the cinematography. It's great. The color palette is beautiful and there are lots of extremely good shots. And there are lots of great examples of visual storytelling.
The music is some of the best this gayest of not the best. It doesn't overweigh the scene or make it over-the-top. It perfectly fits the character and it's there when it needs to.
Now obviously don't need to say anything about Joaquin Phoenix. He has got this Oscar in the bag. He does such a good job it's genuinely uncomfortable when he's around other people because of his characters awkwardness. His laugh is mesmerizing and it looks like it actually hurts when he laughs, it actually looks like it hurts his throat when he laughs, like it's physically painful for him. I love that I think that's a great idea.
Now onto some things I didn't like. It feels like some scenes it doesn't commit to the realism the film establishes. ge. When he kills Randall and Gary is there it doesn't look like Gary is as shocked as a real person would In that position. They seem to treat it like a it's a PG-13 movie instead of an R-Rated one. A real person in that situation would probably have been completely in shock and silence and maybe wouldn't be able to say anything. A real person would see this as much more horrific then it actually is.
And it's the same thing in the last Talk-Show scene with Robert De. Niro as Murray Franklin. When Arthur tells people he killed those people and he laughs about it, Murray doesn't seem to react like a normal person would. And that goes for the audience too. Hey just "booo" at him and yell at him telling him to get out. I mean this is a child-friendly American Talk-Show and bodyguards don't take him out immediately? The audience doesn't get really confused and silent?
After thinking and talking about this movie with my friends. It may be that everything is something Arthur just imagined. All the people praising him, getting to be with that girl, killing his mom? All of this got me thinking maybe he never left the Psyciatric Hospital maybe he never left the white room. Maybe he sat in the room and made all this up. My point is, what i just mentioned before about the Talk-Show scene. If this was something he was making up. this is what he would probably think.