 It's dark, it's twisted, and it's uncomfortably captivating. Hey guys, this is my review for Joker, filmed directed by Todd Phillips, and obviously starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, the new interpretation of the Joker character, and this is a very different version of this character. In terms of all of the previous material that's been written in the comic lore anyways, this is pretty much the most original comic book movie that's come out in a long while, and I say that lightly because this really isn't a comic book movie. Yes, it's about a comic book character entitled, technically speaking, but this is so much more than that. This is a very personal journey into madness, into the decay of the world and the decay of a mental mind. And Joaquin Phoenix absolutely kills it in this movie. His performance is absolutely jaw-dropping. You are enthralled in it the entire time, whether you are maybe laughing here and there, but more so just feeling very uncomfortable. You almost feel pity for this character, but at the same time you see the malice in him. Just like, fuck the world. And that is the catalyst for his character in this film. What we see is Gotham City is just falling into decay, and there's this guy who is trying to hold it together, even though literally everything is working against him. Everything not only with the world, but also his own cognitive function is just breaking him down. We see his decay alongside that of the cities, and there's a lot of really good things in this movie. The soundtrack is oddly enough kind of like a dark ode to that of Scorsese movies, particularly Taxi Driver of course. There's a lot of very good shots in this film. There's actually a lot of architecture sort of city life shots that mimic that of Wally Fister's work from the Dark Knight movies. There is some incredible lighting, some shots of Joaquin, I swear, they just get the camera on him, because the opening is his laugh, and he based his laugh off of that of people suffering from pathological laughter, and his laugh is horrifying in terms of what it represents. The thing that represents that of joy, the very essence of human kindness is actually his own personal hell, his own deficiency and problem of his life. He laughs because it's a mental disorder. He retreats into this laughter whenever he's feeling uncomfortable or just not right, and this is all the time for him. I loved that flip. There's a few flips, reversals in this film. There's a few lines that mirror that of what they've said about Batman, who hides behind a mask is a coward. There's a few other items that reversal on the whole idea of the Batman mythos. All the while there are nods as well to different ideas of the Batman universe. For instance, the first time we see Bruce Wayne as a kid, he walks across this little playground and he takes a pole, a sliding pole down. The production design of this film is also pretty damn good. It really kind of captures that 80s, maybe late 70s sort of aesthetic, even though sometimes there's a few things that kind of make it think that maybe the 90s. It doesn't really say what it is. All it says to you is that it's in Gotham, and I like that it doesn't really try to tech base itself. It's about this character. This is like a high production art house movie in a sense. There's a lot of things that they do in this movie that you wouldn't see in a big blockbuster, but there's also a few things that have a lot more sway and production design to them than a normal art house movie would. So it's this kind of almost perfect blend of the two. And the last 25 minutes I would say you are rooted in your seat. You can't take your eyes off the screen. It is that gripping and that awkward and that uncomfortable, but again, that is enthralling. The darkness of the material kind of waivers it from being a, hey, let's pop this in. You definitely got to be in the mood to watch this movie, but I did enjoy it and I would recommend it. In the end, my rating for Joker is a 6 out of 7. This is definitely one of the better movies of the year in terms of originality, how it's shot, how it's put together. And considering apparently this was an absolute nightmare, a lot of the time on set, I'm pretty impressed that it turned out as well as it did. Anyways, guys, I hope you liked the review. If you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more, maybe subscribe. Otherwise, see you guys next time.