Joker

What the film wants to say — about mental illness or class divisions in society — is not as interesting as what it accidentally says about whiteness.

Joaquin Phoenix, in another outstanding performance.

Not only an intelligent throwback to the feel-bad shock cinema of the 1970s, Joker is all but unique in its social realism...

The result of these creative decisions, however, is that whatever power Joker, as a pop culture icon, might wield, Joker, as a movie, feels toothless.

Joker doesn't understand its representation of violence because it doesn't know what to do with its politics, opting instead for a confused aestheticization of anarchy, all incendiary chants and masked malcontents thronging the streets.

Joker is a jumble - sometimes brilliant and sometimes trite. Among its flashes of excellence is a self-serious movie that isn't nearly as deep as it thinks it is.

The environment and its atmosphere are a central aspect narratively, that is why Joker begins with a description of that city which, like New York from Taxi Driver, is represented as a putrid place with social violence and rising class resentment.

Joker is what so many controversial films turn out to be: it’s fine — neither masterpiece nor trash fire, well-executed in some parts and poorly thought out in others.

a clever gem of a movie that approaches its complex themes with extreme simplicity.

The joke in both cases is that the director both gets to disavow white male murderousness and claim credit for it.