Fantastic Film

I COULD NOT BELIEVE how much I enjoyed this!

I thought it would be a cheap movie, not connected to the DC universe, and would just be boring or stupid. It is in fact and EXCELLENT Joker story.

My complaint about all film Jokers is that they aren't much like the character. The important part of the character is that he sees life as a sick joke and thinks his destructive behavior is funny. Of course, behind all that in extreme manic anger.

This was the closest yet to the character.

However, I do think it's important to the story that his face actually gets changed by some accident. The original character is from the book, The Man Who Laughs. That's about a guy whose face is mutilated and stuck into a smile. All kinds of bad things happen to him and he appears to laugh his way through, but really he can't show any other emotion.

It's important that the Joker not be able to stop smiling.

Whatever the case, Phoenix' performance was amazing. He's not a favorite of mine, but damn he was great. He put a lot of genuine emotion into the character. I loved the commentary about how life can drive you crazy because it's so insanely stupid due to the actions of others.

I typically hate when people say a comic book movie should win an Oscar, because they never do, but this should. The themes in it are very important and the acting excellent compared to most films.