Joker

Joaquin Phoenix's physical transformation anchors nearly every account — the contorted shoulders, the sudden laughing fits, the slow drift from Arthur Fleck into something else. Viewers describe being unable to look away, and many single out the score for making scenes feel dangerous before anything actually happens. Todd Phillips draws steady praise for the grimy Gotham lighting and framing, and a large share of watchers arrive at the same comparison: this plays as a Scorsese-style character study, with Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy named repeatedly, rather than as a comic-book film.

Dissent clusters around pacing and script. Several people who admired the acting still found two hours dragging, describing a film that shows its whole hand in the trailer and then walks slowly toward it. Others argue the unraveling is never earned — Arthur is visibly unwell the moment we meet him, so the descent reads as a stroll rather than a fall — and they question plausibility in the later stretch, particularly how Gotham's police behave. A recurring objection from comic readers: this Arthur shows none of the wit or cunning they associate with the character.

One comparison surfaces almost compulsively: Heath Ledger's version. Where viewers land varies — some say Phoenix matches or surpasses it, others place him a clear step below, and several refuse to rank two performances they see as doing different jobs, one framing Ledger as a rational man acting insane and Phoenix as insane to the root. What stands out is that the harshest detractors, the ones calling the film overrated, boring or lazily written, still exempt the lead performance from the complaint. Phoenix is the one thing the room agrees on.

Written from the reviews Rankquant collected for this title, and AI-curated from them. Opinions are the reviewers', not Rankquant's.