Not surprised seeing the hatred towards the film and the talking points of those negative reviews. Mostly bashing the idea of Joker. The fanatics often forget that Joker is the villain who gets his a** handed over and over by Batman. Arthur Flake becomes the Joker in a pre-Batman era of Gotham and creates a sensation in the mass in a very divided society with huge economical disparity. His violence creates a fanbase in fictional world of Gotham which traverse the fourth wall and spreads to the edgelords in real life!
And Arthur falls victim to that same identity he creates and metaphorically and literally killed by the Joker (oh yes, that guy was definitely becoming the Joker that we know of, as THE batman villain) identity.
How Arthur becomes the victim from the both side of socio-economical injustice and the toxic fan-base his joker persona creates!
How he runs away from the 'joker' on the street! that image is a definite tearjerker.
Coming to technical pov, the film could have been tighter, could have more nuances in the characters and so on.
But what a performance from both Joaquin and Lady Gaga! absolute brilliance.
This film is definitely going to be marked as an underrated classic in near future. I am quite sure of it.