Great acting, meh movie

Rating: 6/10 (5 October 2019)

There is no doubt in my mind that Joaquin Phoenix deserves at least an Oscar nod, if not the trophy itself. In an odd way, he reminded me of Sean Penn in that when you watch him, you forget he is an actor, all you see is the character. In reality, the rest of the cast were merely props in this one-man show... even Robert De Niro.
There are a lot of Easter Eggs as nods to other films of the late 70s and early 80s, which was cool.
As an origin story in the comic book universe, Joker was good, better than most. I do not judge movies based on how closely they follow a book or if they follow the rules of physics, but more if they entertain me and allow me to escape my reality for a few hours. In that sense, Joker left me wanting for more. Yeah, there are political nods that you can read into this, but they weren't forced onto the viewer, more of a backdrop.
The randomness of Joker's thinking and thoughts was in a word, distracting. Because the director put me in the lead character's psychosis, I had a hard time sympathizing with any character in the movie, which makes it difficult to connect to the story.
Maybe the real genius of the movie was that randomness, seeing the world through the psychotic mind of the Joker. But it didn't make for a hugely entertaining experience for me.