“I had a bad day.”

There are certainly problems with the story, but overall, this is a fascinating and incredibly introspective look into a person, who once flawed but decent, descends into madness. Joaquin Phoenix’s interpretation of the Joker certainly isn’t my favorite because of it not being very related to the comics a whole lot, but this has to be one of my favorite performances of all-time. He fully embodies the character, not just in a physical way, but the way he portrays the slow mental decline of his character, Arthur, AKA, “the Joker.” Phoenix certainly deserved that Oscar.

At the beginning, Arthur is a character who you care for and have empathy towards despite all his flaws because truly deep inside he is someone who cares about other people and wants to make the world a better place. He loves his mother, and how he takes care of her adds to that empathy. His mental condition also makes him just interesting in general, and you even feel a little embarrassed for him whenever his condition comes out in public. Arthur’s love for people is genuine and real, and you can’t help but love the guy (at first). His unrealistic goals, like being a comedian when he doesn’t have the skills to do so, also give him a sense of pity.

Speaking of pity, the deep sorrow you feel for him is real, even by the end after all the terrible things he’s done. His contributions to the world and love for people are rewarded with nothing but people who trash him, both people who are just genuinely awful and people who don’t understand his condition. He just wants to make people happy (or laugh), and all he gets in return is people who violate and attack him and psychologists who don’t care enough to get him true help. He definitely should have been in that insane asylum for longer by the way.

All of this leads to the true nature of the story, his progression into becoming a terrible, bitter, and even more insane character than before. The lack of help, care, and support given to him by both society and even his mother lead him into becoming the worst possible version of himself. This eventually leads to a scene where he completely becomes a different person, and one that you can’t root for anymore. His actions go way too far, and instead of taking accountability and feeling guilty, he continues to live with an insanely pessimistic mindset and starts to feel pleasure from hurting other people, a complete contrast from how he was before.

The proof that he is pretty much at a point where he can’t be redeemed (unless he somehow had a massive come to Jesus moment) continue to live on throughout the story. He begins to do more and more terrible things, and it gets to a point where it’s just plain hard to watch anymore. This is not a criticism by the way, a character study movie like this should absolutely be hard to watch, because if it wasn’t, you simply wouldn’t buy it. The third act and climax make for some really impactful and shocking moments and come to prove even more so, if you didn’t already believe it, that he is truly mad and lost.

Moving onto the filmmaking aspects of the movie, this is a beautiful movie to look at. It has both a vintage and dirty look to it, while still having colors that pop out and are pretty to look at that perfectly pair with the story and mood. The camera movements are also well done, with scenes zooming in and out at just the right times (weird to mention, I know, but if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what I’m talking about). I also thought that some of the shot pauses after some of the bigger events in the story were perfectly handled and made for an effective way of getting the audience to think more about what just happened. The choreography is also surprisingly excellent, though I won’t spoil how it ties into the story.

I also just love the atmosphere of Gotham City. While the story is more of a character study than a straight up comic book movie, Todd Phillips and crew still took the time to get the look of Gotham City right. Just like the cinematography and color grading, it looks dirty and vintage as it should. I’d compare it to The Batman, but with more daytime scenes obviously. I also just loved the use of 1970s-style neon street signs and such.

The criticisms, or really only one main criticism, that I have of the film has to do with the pacing. Especially on rewatch, I just think that Arthur’s turn happens maybe a tad bit too quickly. I think they could have easily moved “that” scene a little further back and it would have been even more impactful. It still is highly impactful; I just think it could have been even more so if there was more time to develop Arthur as an empathetic human being before his turn. I could have also probably done without the forced in “expanded world” stuff, like references that tie in to Batman and such, except for maybe the one at the very end.

Still need to see The King of Comedy by the way.