Mixed feelings. Joaquin Phoenix gives an amazing performance, but the story seems to be trying to make an extremely dangerous person sympathetic by showing him undergoing endless bullying and/or dismissiveness from others to justify the violence he unleashes. Cannot recommend this movie, but gave it 3 1/2 stars based on Phoenix's acting.

This was an amazing, thought-provoking movie. Not what I envisioned and well worth watching. Very, very dark, though.

Overrated movie about psychopath. Worthless. Totally waste of time.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Joaquin Phoenix was outstanding as the Joker. His performance was mesmerizing and completely believable. You can't take your eyes off of him! The movie was tense and compelling to watch. It's really well done and the tension keeps building. But this is not a fun movie. It was disturbing and ugly. So while overall this was a good movie, it isn't something I would ever want to watch again. Definitely a very dark thriller.

This is a seriously overrated movie- I found it plodding and dull- and with its over reliance on motifs from the vastly superior films " Taxi Driver " and " The King of Comedy " it was also derivative and unoriginal. The fact that Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his hammy and superficial performance is even more unbelievable.

WOW!

Excellent. A Joker origin story as expected, but pleasantly meaty, gritty, realistic, violent, and even believable, all while tugging real emotions under recognizable circumstances you’d be afraid to admit to your best friends. It was barely fiction, with most settings and elements pulled from real headlines. I cheated and checked the special features, thankfully agreeing with commentaries and interviews. On a technical note, I was amazed how some simple sets were mostly CG, while the complexities of all Gotham were digital mattes; I assumed city shots were filmed in some basic and crusty neighbourhoods but it was only the tight-framed scenes, leaving horizons, elevations, graffiti, and probably a lot of street garbage to the computer.

Arthur Fleck is brought to life brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix, so I can finally forgive him for “I’m Still Here,” which I choose to recall, now, as unfortunate performance art. He’s done many good things before and after, but I never forgave his disruptive talk show appearance. It was probably staged but it wasn’t art, it was just bad and rude. I think it’s also obvious, like most great performances, that Joaquin fuelled his Joker fire with some shared memories and recognition of Arthur’s history.

We pay to share the Joker’s path, starting with a boatload of sympathy for a guy struggling with a bad hand: physical scarring, mental illness, mental abuse and harassment, violence, neurological disorder, broken family, unemployed and broke, and in the worst time at the worst place in recent history, all while responsible and caring for his ailing mother. He almost made it, and you might find yourself cheering for him. It’s barely disguised that Gotham is 1981 NYC; I guessed mid-‘70s, but I wasn’t there. As the path extended, we strung together the stressors that fully formed the Joker, and we gradually shifted from feeling sympathy to observing sociopathy. Unfortunately, if you stepped over the line into empathy you went too far, and will end up giving Joker 4/5 stars instead of 5. Don’t compare Arthur Fleck to your own life or your disgust will make it hard to enjoy the film.

It was also amazing how they dovetailed Joker stories with Batman canon, while completely original and not reworked from graphic novels. Joker was born as a film, which might explain its brilliance, not tied down by outside forces. Can't unsee comics or a dozen previous Jokers, so it's hard to know if this film stands alone very well. When it did respect the comics, it added unexpected twists and evoked emotional connections, stayed in its period, and still had legs to reflect modern societal foibles. In the end, the Joker we left with was the Joker we recognise, after enjoying the ride to Arkham Asylum.

Superb...psychological look at how the Joker came to be...a dark movie to be sure....thoroughly enjoyed it

My first review somehow got deleted, so I will be brutally honest; don't waste your time on this. It is excruciatingly slow and for the most part rather boring. I've enjoyed watching paint dry more than I didn't care for this. D-

Upon second watch of the Dark Knight I realized it was a mediocre film , but Heath Ledger Joker is still impressive. Where this movie failed to impress me it was not the performances or cinematography. Despite being portrayed as a brooding, dark film on mental illness it came across as very shallow. It lacked originality, which is a shame. Do we have people that bully and treat the vulnerable like crap ? Absolutely. Is the system corrupt and have been making money over mental illness, while we still on some parts is seen as a tabo? Yes . Do we also have good people and those who are underpaid on social work jobs?
The movie didn’t explore Joker psyche or his motivations. It was a cheap use of outside drama to tell a half - baked compelling story.