I agree with Design Sifu and Kevin73 on this - it's a very interesting film.

Joker made me rethink comic book movies entirely. A tour de force for Phoenix, an actor that I often find overrated, but he earns his reputation for shadowy characters in...well not spades, in jokers. It's a fresh original vision for comic-based films, not the Mindless-Candy-Universe , but a journey into madness and chaos with echoes of Taxi Driver, accentuated by Deniro's appearance. It turns one of the most iconic comic villains sideways, with nods to the archetypal municipality of Gotham, and sly comments on the hellish society that is our real world now. Many complain that the DCEC is too dark. This is the darkest yet. I found it imperfect yet engrossing. Now at $1B+ globally, in all honesty, I'm a bit surprised it has so much appeal. There's a rebel spirit to it, an anarchic rebel, but so much of the world is on the brink of rebellion now that it resonates. The Joker masks have the potential to be the new V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks or the La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) Dali masks. I can totally see them bleeding into real world protests for what they symbolize. I gotta hand most of why it works to Joaquin (there’s even some Oscar buzz) plus the dissonant cello-heavy soundtrack heightens the tension.