Movie of the year for me.

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2019)

This film messes with your emotions. There are scenes where you are not sure if you should laugh or feel sad (kind of how Fry from Futurama was conflicted with fear and joy when sentenced to death by snu-snu). There are moments that make you laugh (if you like dark humor like me). The comedy is similar to Joan Cornella's morbid comedic illustrations.
Joaquin Phoenix's acting makes the character believable. His unique laughter sounds a bit painful and sad. When the situation goes south, the actor does a great job of performing the fight or flight behavior. Joaquin has an interesting and kind of silly way of running that fits the clown character appropriately (because he is a clown, it makes sense to me). The character is not a simple, black and white personality, instead he is a complex multi-layered individual that makes him entertaining to observe.
The movie is realistic/grounded. Corrupt behavior is created and not born and there is tons of research to back this up. The Joker was not born with a corrupt mind. The film does a great job showing how the environment molded his corrupt behavior. Thomas Wayne's portrayal is believable because someone in his position of wealth and power would behave the way he does (although there are a few wealthy people out there that are cool).
The film has high quality violence (laugh out loud). This movie makes the violence feel shocking and serious. Other movies have too much violence that it starts to feel cheap and not a big deal (these films are still fun to watch though).
This is one of the reasons why I love video games like The Last of Us or movies like Coco because they put plenty of effort in all of the departments (story, character development, believable acting, and an effective atmosphere). It is a memorable experience, it has substance, and it made me feel like this **** matters. Movie of the year for me.