An inward look psychological rollercoaster.

Rating: 10/10 (7 October 2019)

Managing to stay true to the comics in an origin sorry based on the joker is tricky, due to the very nature of the character and the lack of knowledge of his former life which we have to go on. Without spoiling anything, much of this movie takes place in the viewers own mind. Leaving more questions by the end than you had going in, the movie manages to pull off showing us the Jokers history, while having us question if what we are seeing is in any way real, or if it depicts the character we think we all know. There are a few nods to the batman comics, but it isn't a batman movie in any way. Really, it isn't even a joker movie. It's a movie about a fractured mind in a fractured world, and it's self imposed confirmation, slowly becoming a character we both love and loath. Creepy, disturbing, intense. Phoenix really nails this version of the character, but also manages to capture the lonely, sad life of Arthur, leading us to fully understand, and both completely misunderstand the journey he takes during the course of the film.