I've had an amazing experience watching the movie premiere in Venice, I've been waiting for this movie for a long time and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

It's a gorgeous movie, it's disturbing but moving at the same time, violent at times, but also subtle. It's a different and fresh spin on the character and on the cinecomic genre as a whole and Phoenix delivers an amazing performance portraying a version of the Joker we've never seen before, he's not the villain of someone else's story, he is the hero and villain of HIS own story, and the audience can be orrified by him, but we can't help but feel for him at times.

Without giving anything away I would recommend to go and see the movie not expecting to go and see an action packed, but gritty cinecomic, I suggest going in and watch it pretending that it's not even about a famous comic villain, but simply a movie, I think that people will appreciate it more in that way, not comparing it to the cinecomics we've seen before, but thinking of it as a normal movie.

P.S.: People will of course compare Phoenix to Ledger, I don't think it's possible, they give a totally different percormance because they portray totally different versions of the character, and I think it's going to be hard to compare them, you either prefere Ledger's version or Phoenix's but only based on the character, the actor's performances cannot be judged by comparison, they're both great. Just enjoy the movie

Well, I'll never listen to That's Life by Frank Sinatra in the same way again, that's for sure.

Before I start, there are two groups of people who need to be addressed:
- Regarding the people who are saying that it's too violent, and a movie based on comics shouldn't be like that: please, go back to watching _Dora: The Explorer_.
- Regarding the people who are calling it a Taxi Driver or King of Comedy rip-off: Is _Mr. Robot_ a _Fight Club_ rip-off? You have to see the difference between ripping something off and taking inspiration + adding your own ideas to it. Also, _Taxi Driver_ is a vigilante story, something which this isn't.

So, most of the praise you heard about this movie I can absolutely get behind. The cinematography and score are without a doubt Oscar worthy. Joaquin Phoenix is front and center, and he absolutely shines. It is a full on character study, and the movie shows everything from the Joker's point of view. It keeps the movie focussed, but it has to be said that there are no other interesting characters to get invested into, something that other character studies don't forget. The pacing is also very well done. It doesn't feel like a slow movie, and the final 20 minutes are something special. To me, however, the first 90 minutes are a lot more interesting. I love the fact that we get to see an in-depth exploration of the causes of social exclusion and what leads to Arthur's downward spiral. Phillips very wisely points to a variety of causes at very different levels of society (elites, government, punks), while not forgetting that some blame also falls into the hands of Arthur himself (e.g. his megalomania). This is a very strong and nuanced message.

And then there's the film's other message. When it comes to a film like this (a protagonist with a downwards spiral), the movie often starts with making you feel sympathetic towards the character. _The Wolf of Wallstreet_ does that. _Breaking Bad_ does that. And _Joker_ also does that. But then there's a point where the character crosses the line, a moment which you can almost pinpoint in this movie, namely [spoiler] the scene where he kills his mom [/spoiler]. From that point on, a movie should clearly condemn what he's doing in order to not give out an immoral or wrong message. In _The Wolf of Wallstreet_, Di Caprio starts to lose everything. In _Breaking Bad_, Walter White starts to lose everything. Phillips, however, goes out of his way of condemning what his character does. Instead, he plays swelling and upbeat music during the film's darkest moments. Moreover, Joker gets [spoiler] a happy ending [/spoiler], and no other characters have a sincere conversation about the atrocities of what he's doing. In other words, the movie gives off the impression of still being on his side, thereby presenting violence as the answer to this man's problems, and I can totally agree with some of the critics who have a moral problem with that. I understand that they wanted to stay with Arthur's perspective through the end, but this comes at the cost of one of the biggest mistakes a film like this can make. At the same time, one major flaw doesn't make a film bad. I mean, _Gone With The Wind_ is immoral in the sense that it is racist, but is it a bad film? Absolutely not.

7.5/10

I've just stepped out of the cinema having watched the worst movie of the year. I feel like the director has played me for a fool. I feel like the joke here.

Joaquin Phoenix must want to shake Todd Phillips till his eyes pop out his head for he went 100% down the rabbit hole to create this performance - only for a horrendously bad director, languid editing, and a screenplay-by-numbers to fail this picture into the miserable, sodden, car-crash of a film it is.

The last time I felt so vitriolic after a 'much-hyped' film was Guy Ritchie's Revolver. Another stinker for the ages.

I particularly feel like a joke has been had at my expense by the presence of Robert De Niro, who must have had deja vu cashing his paycheck reminiscing back to his (actually a good film) The King of Comedy.

This film tries to marry that Rupert character to Taxi Driver and comes up with garbage. Much like the garbage epidemic denoted in the plot itself.

I paid 8 pounds to see this. You'd have to pay me 800 to watch it again.

It almost worked for a few minutes during the scenes with Bobby D's Johnny Carson bit. Almost. The rest was as predictable yet immensely tedious as it could be without me being handed a copy of the script on the way in.

Do yourself a favour... Don't ruin your opinion of Joaquin Phoenix by seeing this. It doesn't feel like he is to blame here. But it's best to just steer clear of the movie altogether. It offers nothing to the DC universe. It offers nothing to the Batman legacy. It actively dishounours the greatness of Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson, Cesar Romero and all future Jokers.

This film itself IS the joker.

Utter crap.


3/10 - for the attempts made by Joaquin Phoenix saving it from 1/10.

It's not an incel movie, despite what people are saying. And it's no a White Supremacy film either. It's not even a pro T-word president film. In fact, it addresses some pretty heavy left wing issues. Or at least issues that were traditionally on the left before things went...weird and all topsy turvy.

However, it is also NOT a Marvel Film, so of you are walking in expecting a Marvel style movie you will walk out hating it. So don't go in expecting an MCU film.

Instead you get a dramatic, slow moving, intensely building movie that develops it's characters.

And it really develops them, when you start watching the film the Joker was sympathetic... and by the time you walked out you really hated him.

And that is all I feel comfortable saying without spoiling things.

It is intersting to analyze this movie in a context of global increase of violent social movements against the Establishment. Joker succeed in making me accept a violent reactions without really explicit political fundation.