Joker confused

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2019)

Joker is a good movie but it could have been great. The positives are too visible and obvious that I have to focus on the negatives. One of the fundamental problems I have is that this film doesn't really know what it is and what it ultimately wants to say.
Is it a probe inside a shattered mind?
For that the film is too incoherent. What is the true nature of Arthur's psychosis? It seems he just suffers from too big of a number of unrelated conditions that come and go with no real explanation or reason. On one hand he experiences great trouble with even the most basic tasks and social interactions. On other hand he is capable of planning, eluding the authorities and see himself with objective eyes which all seem much too normal for his character, I think. In the later parts of the film he even seems to be enjoying his state of mind and yet describe himself from an outsiders point of view. Isn't that strange for a man who, in his own words, didn't even know if he existed? There were parts that felt real about him but overall Joker seems like an incredibly mentally challenged character written by someone who has no real experience within the field. The result seems to be a bit shalow view of an incredibly complicated mind.
Is it a social critique?
What seems to be too coincidental about Arthur is his ability to apparently stay out of trouble for most of his life yet his first burst of violence in this film seems almost unprovoked and without any deep merit. The film acts as if the state of society and Gotham City is a factor but Arthur himself states few times he doesn't really care. He just wants to be seen. And that I understand as from the movie's point of view the clash of rich and poor in Gotham is just a thing that doesn't really have any concrete reason or development until the first subway incident. It is just a climate Arthur lives in but isn't really influenced by. The film acts as if there was only one person to blame and doesn't really care about anyone else which seems very superficial and prevents viewer from creating any real relation to the cause.
Is it a comic book movie?
Joker tries so much not to be a superhero movie that it strips us from anything extraordinary, different or grotesque. Gotham seems just like New York, lacking any charm or special features. Apart from Arthur there are no really interesting characters in this movie. They all seem too flat and no one has any real space to show anything. Sure, I understand the film wants to underline how all people are the same, apathetic, grey.. But the result seems to have almost opposite effect and Arthur feels somehow more invisible in the company of others. There are scenes to evoque some kind of connection to the Batman universe but overall fall almost forced and have no real meaning in this story.
Whose point of view are we observing?
The biggest problem for me is the way the film is shot. The camera is too objective, uninvolved, cool and all attempts to delve viewer into the dark chaos of Arthur's mind fall a little flat. Yet there are times when the camera tricks us and we find out that we weren't presented with reality. But to make us feel we see the world through Arthur's eyes it doesn't suffice at all. Yes, we feel for him and maybe even understand but what we don't really feel is his depression as the movie appears to be scared to keep us in his mind for too long and therefore fails to create any kind of subjective ambience. Protecting us from the anxiety and depression makes Joker, to much regret, too mainstream of a movie without no real artistic components.
I would love to see more nuance, more personality. I feel Todd Phillips' effort to keep the film as minimalistic as possible but he tends to take out the parts that we need and add things we really don't. The screenplay lacks more imagination and originality and when you try and imagine this movie without the main character and the devastating, physically painful, all-in performance by Joaquin Phoenix, there isn't much left. And that simply will not do.