Joker is directed by Todd Philips and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man disregarded and thrown out of society.

We live in an era in which formulaic comic book movies are more and more common. Joker not only proves that you can make a comic book movie without a villain but also proves that comic book movies can be used as psychological studies reflecting on how our society views and treats mental health issues of certain individuals.

If I had to describe Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker in one word it would be mesmerising. His take on the iconic comic book character is filled with emotional depth to the point where it's almost painful to watch and flawlessly realistic making it one of the best performances of the decade.

The cinematography is also something to note. It is full of gorgeous shots with a beautiful colour palate making it's shot composition and structure heavily differ from most comic book films.

The score is very minimalistic but every time it comes on it feels unsettling and haunting which adds to the suspense of the story.

My biggest and only issue with Joker is that it's too inspired by Scorsese's King of Comedy and Taxi Driver making the majority of the film predictable. However, making it predictable didn't take away much from its quality and only made it more unsettling because we can see the degradation of Joker's mind before it happens making the film more depressing.

I wouldn't really call Joker a comic book movie. Yes, it's based on a comic book and depicts arguably the most iconic comic book character of all time, but it stands alone among dozens of its predecessors as a psychological drama that reflects on society and its issues rather than a fantasy world.

Overall, Joker is a brilliant take on the character, however it's not for the faint of heart or narrow-minded and prejudiced people.

Final Grade - 9/10

Joaquin' portrayal of a sociopathic, mentally unstable man's transformation to the iconic Joker was non other than a grippingly accurate, realistic and touching rendition. A dark and disturbing character piece led by an Oscar worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix. You really do feel bad for this guy, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when he inevitably becomes the clown prince of crime we all know and love, although we've never seen him like this. We see him suffer throughout the movie to the point we're almost rooting for himk to become a mass murdering psyco clown, because that at least will make feel better; then it happens and we just wish this could have all just been avoided, because es so messed up. We feel for him and care about him. By the time he's the joker, we wish we could've helped him. There's a lot of great nods to the greater Batman universe, yet the movie is a self contained character piece. That can only be the mark of a great movie. All the acting is great, the plot (while similar to Taxi Driver) is brilliant and the quality of the movie shows you don't need CGI super powers to be a great villain in a Superhero movie. Is a joke not everyone gets. This movie is "the rise of the Joker!" 10/10

I went into this film expecting an all-time classic based on the reviews I had read & what I ended up watching was just a decent film overall. Phoenix is outstanding...so he definitely did his part. But I feel like if you've seen the trailers you've seen the movie because the best way I can describe this film is it feels like a 2 hour version of the trailer. At 2 hours it's a relatively common runtime, but it felt a lot longer...which isn't good. I'd say this is much more of a rental than a theater movie. Kinda just....eh.