Joseph Bunton

Only fools and superficial critics could give this film anything lower than low 90's. Rarely has modern cinema seen such brilliant acting that Joaquim Phoenix's rendering of the sociopathic joker, made this way by a mother who abused him. Hats off the our last great Joker played by Heath Ledger. At the time, who could, or would, try to improve upon that. We do not have to. We give credit to the director/producer/screed writer and acting staff who lent this character the props to make this happen. Whoever came up with the theme song of HERE COME THE CLOWNS, in combination with the dark metro stairway where our villain dances as if on a Broadway solo: this was pure stagecraft and acting at its finest. For Phoenix to starve himself in order to get into the hollow contours of his body, then dig deep into the bowels of his own laughless broken heart to bring up those psychotic, spontaneous fits of pain hidden behind laughter: I bow down low. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant BUT not for the superficial moviegoer. This is a real, true, crime drama.