Joaquin Phoenix, That's All

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2019)

Not a single Comicbook movie excited me until this one and that's because of Joaquin and Joaquin only. This character is tailor made for someone like him who has given terrific and criminally underrated performances over the years in films like The Master, Walk The Line, Two Lovers and Inherent Vice. Todd Philips made the right decision to a character study psychological film rather than the usual adventure/action.
Gotham City is like NYC in 1970s/80s a city with massive wealth inequality, rising crime and brutal austerity measures. In surroundings like this, a fragile and broken individual like Arthur Fleck is bound to explode but how he does and why he does is what we see for 121 minutes. The undertones on anarchy, capitalism and classism is quite brilliant and this is one of the films where we cheer for the guy we are supposed to dislike.
Joaquin Phoenix not only does justice to Heath Ledger in this film but creates an own legacy for himself. It's a shame that a guy who has given better performances in movies like The Master and Walk The Line will probably win his much awaited Oscar for this role, a highly popular character to get noticed.