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Joker's out!.. in order not to spoil the movie for those who havent watch yet... there will nt be any spoilers here. there's been so many variations of the Joker, with the late Heath Ledger's portrayal by far the most iconic, till enter Joker 2019 by Joaquin Phoenix. Wad makes this Joker so different from the rest of the Joker? People are comparing between the two but you can't really compare the 2 legends. Heath's acted as the joker throughout the movie whereas Phoenix's one showed him as a normal man with a mental illness and how he slowly turned into a madman.. in the little time that he became the joker,man it was chilling I was shell-shocked as the end credits rolled on 'Joker'. But not just for the reasons you might expect. Yes, the violence, when it eventually comes, is shocking. And yes, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is a masterful gut-punch. No, it was the dawning that the makers of Joker had managed to Trojan horse a movie ostensibly about mental illness and pass it off as a studio comic book movie -- and a potently powerful one at that. That fact is sadly being lost among the feverish controversy surrounding the film’s violence. From the offset, Joker is a discombobulating experience. This is a most atypical of comic book movies: no flurry of CGI, no orgy of action, no Joker falling into a vat of bubbling acid to emerge with grand plans to watch Gotham City burn. What writer/director Todd Phillips and Phoenix give us is a gritty, edgy psychological thriller set in a Gotham reminiscent of grimy New City, circa 1981. It charts the descent of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix), a mentally ill aspiring comedian maligned by society, into the Clown Prince of Crime in a vehicle best described as Taxi Driver meets The King of Comedy, two major Martin Scorsese films that heavily influenced Phillips’ vision. And this is not the Joker of old, the “criminally insane” “inmate” of Arkham Asylum. No, this is cold-hard-reality mental illness. Though never clearly defined, severe depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are two afflictions for Arthur in an alienated existence as a rent-a-clown by day and carer for his ailing mother (Frances Conroy) by night. He feels unseen, unheard. He craves validation, adulation, love. His bony frame -- Phoenix lost more than 23kg for the role -- perhaps a metaphor for that hunger. He also suffers a humiliating and real condition called Pseudobulbar affect , uncontrollable episodes of laughing or crying at inappropriate times. What surprised me was how bluntly honest Joker is about mental health, not just for a comic book vehicle, but a mainstream Hollywood movie. Anyone who has had a prolonged mental illness, as I have, will likely find some of Arthur’s experiences relatable. He laments having to attempt to hide his mental illness to be socially acceptable, writing in his therapy diary/joke book; “The worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.” In voicing the pointlessness of his mandated sessions with a social worker where he’s asked the same questions but never really heard, he reveals a sobering truth for anyone who has had severe depression: “All I have are negative thoughts.” At another moment, another heartbreaking statement that rings true: “I just don’t want to feel so bad anymore.” His mother may have given him the moniker ‘Happy’ but it’s something he’s never really felt. Joker shows us the unvarnished human side of this villain-to-be, a man who has been institutionalised and released with minimal support, only to be told the city is cutting back on mental health services and he’s on his own.