Adhirath Sethi

Dark, painful, twisted, and oddly satisfying. The Joker shocks you in its ability to almost identify with the main character, despite all the horrific things he does. As a villain whose back story has always been shrouded in mystery, the pulling of the veil leaves you wishing you knew less, because how could so much pain yield anything but the most terrible of people. The only missing piece for me was the lack of genius in the Joker’s manner. True, he thrives on chaos and his inability to feel remorse despite his crimes is a superpower in itself. But the Joker is also a brilliant mind, capable of bending the will of others with nothing but his words. Phoenix’s portrayal only looks at the sadness and the triggers that created the Joker, but it omits the brilliant mind that truly allowed him to become one of history’s greatest supervillains.