Last weekend I went to go see the movie “Joker.” I didn’t really know what to expect as I hadn’t seen any trailers for it. I only had opinions from others who had seen it. The only think I knew was that it was an origin story for a Batman villain. The movie itself is based on Arthur Fleck, who is a failed comedian. The movie follows him as he falls into madness due to being bullied, isolated, and disregarded by society. I thought it was a decent movie, but it was definitely very disturbing and violent at times. The movie went at a slow pace and usually that would make me uninterested and bored, but I think in this case the slowness was necessary to telling this story. As a movie watcher it almost feels as though you are with him experiencing this man’s descent into madness.

The movie also touches on mental illness indirectly, you learn quickly that there is definitely something wrong with this character and it has to do with his mind. He is crazy, and doesn’t really know how to act at times. More towards the middle of the movie we learn more about his mental illness and how he imagines a lot of things. And memories we thought were real turned out not to be. One moment that is an example of this was when he was doing a comedy show. He imagined that people were laughing and clapping to his jokes, which weren’t that funny. And we later learn this when people are making fun of him for it. We also learn a bit about his childhood, which could have been what led to his current mental state.

In regards to the acting, Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Arthur Fleck, did an amazing job portraying the character. At times throughout the movie his acting made me feel sad, confused, and shocked. The way he plays this mentally insane character is very interesting whether it be through the laughing at random moments, or murdering somebody, or to anytime he is communicating with someone. It almost seems as this character doesn’t have any emotions at all, and when he does, it is at inappropriate times. For example, he had a condition where he laughed at weird times. Even all the supporting actors (Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, etc) did fantastic jobs.

Overall, I think this movie was good. Although it was dark and disturbing. It was one that I probably won’t watch again because it wasn’t my preferred genre. If you are someone who likes to watch comic book movies or dark, gritty movies, you might like this one. Even if you don’t like this specific genre, I still think it is worth watching, at least once, because of how much it delves into the topic of isolation, mental health, and being different.