I am not really a DC fan. Super hero movies are not for my stomach. A powerful but selfishless person saves the entire world? That’s sounds like a narcissistic fairy tale to me.

When I was introduced to Joker movie, I thought it was just another DC production splashed with expensive special effects and backed with a childish story line. I was biasedly wrong. It is the best movie I have seen in the past 5 years. It’s a masterpiece of absurdism with realistic touch, just like Chaplin's work, which the director paid tribute to at the most ironic scene in the movie. 

The music choices throughout the movie are dark and heart-wrenching, but deeply consistent with its tempo. The gloomy cello music reflects well on Arthur's despair as well as the struggling society setting. The cinematography is right on point. Pheonix's portrait of the Joker deserves an Oscar. The emotions of the character and the transition of the personality are totally embedded in his gesture, his laughter, his walk and his every bone in the body. It's not just a movie. It's an art work. Everything is chosen carefully and worked so smoothly with each other. At one point, I really wanted to leave the cinema. I couldn't bring myself to continue witnessing his sufferings and struggles. I felt suffocated by the despair in the air and I wanted to cry out.

Other than the visual feast the movie presented to us, the movie discusses a very important topic: how well we can embrace people different from us?
Arthur is an eccentric guy with mental illness. His condition of uncontrolled laughter that usually triggers when he is nervous, sad, afraid or angry, makes him unwanted in any social circle. Even his kind gesture is encountered with a hostile attitude. Adding his awkward body movement, he is the outcast in the society to say at least. He tried to be "normal". Until one day, the string of sense snapped and he decided not to try, not to blend and not to be normal. He found his identity as Joker. The society is not welcoming him so he brings disruption and chaos to it. He is the villain whom we can all resonate with to some extent. I believe most of us feel outcast at some point of our life. Some choose to keep silent and change; Some resort to self-destruction; Some bring destruction to fellow human beings and society; Some rise above the adversity but still keep their edge throughout the life. Either way, there is always a joker in our heart. I don't want to get too deep in the social meaning of the movie because different viewers can have different perspectives.

Here comes my favourite part. At the end, Arthur emerges as a villain dressed in style. His choice of costume, a dark green silky shirt and an orange vest, hooded with a red blazer. The theatrical clown makeup adds more drama to the entire style. To me, the climax of the movie is not the gun shots or any other violent scene. It's before he entered the stage, the dance he did behind the curtain. The clothes, the makeup, the dance movements, the music and the reactions from other people, all put together to complete his metamorphosis. It's so daunting and poetic.

Have you watched the movie, what do you think?

Written by Rita