Dark, Psychotic, a twisted Joaquin Phoenix fantasy.

That is the way I describe the new Joker film. It is the origin story for one of the most infamous villains of all time. Arthur Fleck (Joker’s given name in the film) is a failing comedian who makes his money by being a clown for hire. Arthur has a rare disorder called pseudobulbar affect which makes him laugh uncontrollably in situations where he is scared or nervous. This is actually a real life disease and is a form of multiple sclerosis. 

He is bullied and thrown away by society which drives him into further madness. That is an example of why I love this movie. It does not depict a normal man descending into madness but it is an already disturbed man who falls further into depression and deranged anger. 

Joker is the darkest film for the Joker yet and I was pleasantly surprised with the way director Todd Phillips took it. It was the most gory and creepy of all the Joker films. 

Whether critics or audience members love or hate the film, one thing is common throughout all of it. Joaquin Phoenix was fantastic. People like myself were worried that he would not live up to the great Heath Ledger’s Joker, but he did not have to. He came at the role with a different style and it just worked. From his own Joker laugh to his weird dancing, seen in the trailer, Phoenix lost weight for this role to make him look more fragile and broken and he studied people with different forms of multiple sclerosis. This is definitely an Oscar worthy performance. 

I really enjoyed this movie. It is a different take on the Joker that we have seen in different films. It’s not the cunning, calculating Ledger and it’s not the classic and witty Jack Nicholson.

There is a lot of controversy around this movie in the fact that people said Phillips was depicting violence as a way to cope with problems and would inspire people to do horrible things in real life. Keep in mind that this was before anyone even saw the movie. This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard in awhile, this is along the lines of “video games cause violence” which is another idiotic thing for people to blame the gun violence on in the U.S. No normal person who sees this movie will be inspired to commit any sort of crime and if one does, then they were already disturbed.  

Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10.