On Tuesday I watched the very hyped and media blasted Joker Movie starring Joaquin Pheonix and written and directed by Todd Phillips who is known for The Hangover Franchise, War Dogs and Old School.
Leading up to this weekend’s wide release of the joker movie, it has already been praised by critics and even won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and with the scrutiny by the media it is certain to break all types of Box Office records.
This a great movie for fans and non-fans of comic books to enjoy. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything about Batman or the DC Comic Universe. Moviegoers of all types should go watch Joker which centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story never seen before on the big screen.
Todd Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck who is a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale. This film shows that you can take a very popular character that has been portrayed many times and still make a unique and original piece of cinema. As a psychological thriller, this origin movie of the Clown Prince of Crime dives deep and even though there is a great supporting cast, this movie is solely focused on Arthur Fleck’s journey into becoming the Joker.
Many of you may come out thinking this is a politically driven movie but for me it was just a gritty cinematic masterpiece based on an iconic comic book super-villain that should be praised for its boldness, making me want more of Joaquin's Joker performance! For all those bringing up how shocking and violent this movie is, I have personally seen dozens of movies that are 100 times worse than this one and it seems like everyone likes to overreact these days.
This Joker movie has been the Best DC Movie of the Decade and it would be amazing if they built a Batman Universe around this Joker but that is highly unlikely and I will take this film as a Black Label Elseworlds story.
I give Joker a 9/10 and hope this movie gets some Oscar nods for cinematography, script and leading actor!