Joker

Director :Todd Phillips
Genre : Drama
Language:English
Year :2019

Gotham City.
A city with streets filled with poor and ruled by the rich.There is no employment and social services are about to shut down because of the lack of funding.A city where there is no justice - a living hell....

All through his life,Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) searched for happiness,but he failed to find it.His old mother calls him 'Happy' but that is just a meaningless nickname.He works as a clown in daytime and is trying very hard to get a carrier as a stand up comedian.He has a condition where he is not able to control his laughter.He is often bullied by everybody and he is not strong enough to defend himself .As he discovers more ugly truths about people around him,Arthur gradually transforms into an insane man,who calls himself Joker

Joker is perhaps the most famous villain character in pop culture.It started with classic Batman comics like 'The Killing Joke' (which inspired this movie),'A death in the family' etc.,backed by performers like Jack Nicholson,Heath Ledger (who won an Oscar for playing the character) and Mark Hamill (The Batman Animated series)In comics there was no specific origin story for the character.There were multiple stories which portrayed him as a helpless man who got bullied by Redhood gang and fell into a chemical which turned him into the maniac.But here the director is telling a whole new story - a more human one -removing the capes and cowls from the equation.Exactly the reason why I will call this one the most perfect portrayal of the character.It is more like an else-worlds story set in the 80s ,with serious influences from classic films like 'Taxi Driver' and 'The King of Comedy' (Both which I need to watch,but stil you can see the connection and hey we got Robert De Niro himself in the cast)The story is predictable to some extent with some nice twists and secrets.But what elevates the film to another level viewing experience is the brilliant performance by Phoenix.My favorite performance by him was Theodore from 'Her',but Arthur Fleck stands above that with ease.

This was a film which was awarded with Golden Lion in TIFF,but along came the controversies that the film glorifies mass killing and portrays the society in wrong way.As I watched the film I realized that I never felt the character is a hero - he is just a broken man with mental illness who lost control.He may deserve our sympathy,but his actions were never heroic - it was insane

So,I wish Warner Brothers will deliver something classy like this often,rather than trying to copy Marvel And I hope Phoenix wins an Oscar for this performance.