Saw it last night. Man Phoenix was amazing in this movie. And the ugly trash feeled Gotham was filmed in such a beautiful way. I'm in the Camp that the movie clearly establishes when something isnt real except for the ending with the Psychiatrist.
All that said making this a movie about Joker hurt it over all for me. Theres certain expectations you have with a chatacter like Joker. I mean Joker is brilliant and Hilarious. Arthur is dumb and only funny things he does are on accident and is us laughing at him not with him. Then he has this poignant speech about comedy being subjective. So I'm torn on this movie cause if it wasnt about Joker I'd enjoy it even more. I mean if they made a brilliant movie about Batman but they changed everything about Batman I'd feel the same way. It's tough man. Aslo we never got Phoenix trying to be Joker not even at the very end he was still very emotional. Maybe after the scene with the shrink he was gonna leave all that behind but they are never gonna make a sequel so we will never know. Oy I'm so conflicted because I think it's such a good movie but my brain cant help but tear apart all the ways this character is nothing like Joker. And as far as Arthur being dumb I get why they did It for the story. Alot of whats dumb about him is he cant spell for ****. And his social awkwardness gives off a low EQ. That could have been done to hit home how bad Gotham is for the poor and like alot of Urban Areas the public schools are just awful. So my rational brain gets the choices they make but my fanboy brain is a whiney bitch and is yelling but Joker is a genius. If he does soemthing dumb its intentional
Also I think Phoenixs performance and the cinematography are both oscar level. But they have a very subtle moment where you realize Zaza doesnt even know arthur but then the director didnt have enough confidence that the audience wasnt stupid and then has flashbacks that spell it out for you.
Anyway I went on about that too long. Makes it seem like I didn't love the movie. Which I did love. If they coulda done it with a more faithful Joker i woulda just loved it even more.