POSITIVES…
Simply put, watch this movie for the phenomenal performance by Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck. Such raw emotions and madness displayed on screen.
“Man vs the world, and goes on a downward spiral of violence” premise for this film is a solid piece of psychological drama, and character study. Think Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” meets Schumacher’s “Falling Down.”
I respect how dark, provocative, and violent, this story was willing to go. No cartoon deaths here.
Some scenes are quite memorable and provocative.
What this story does with the Joker’s laugh is an interesting take for sure.
By the end of the movie, I felt horrified by how the final act played out, and I’m sure that’s the intended reaction. Bravo.
The other main reason to see this would be the “more realistic” depiction of what the origin story of the comic book character Joker could be.
Speaking of comic books… there’s surprisingly a good amount of Batman mythology related references and easter eggs in this movie.
Oh, and despite how deathly serious this story is, there are actually a handful of comedic moments that managed to thankfully lighten the mood a little bit, if only so briefly.
NEGATIVES…
People going in thinking they are getting a fun entertaining comic book movie will be very disappointed.
The comic book mythology parts of the movie were pretty distracting.
As provocative as the overall theme of the story is, it’s not exactly a deeply unfamiliar subject matter. Especially if you’ve seen enough of these kinds of stories.
There’s one particular quick exposition montage scene that seemed like the movie didn’t respect the audience enough to understand the reveal without explicitly showing it. I just had to roll my eyes when that happened.
Some logical flaws in certain scenes took me out of the movie.
Misguided sociopathic people might use this movie as an excuse to cause violence.
P.S….
lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible
