I hated it. Posting my thoughts here that have also been shared on letterboxd.
Joker has totally made my mood drop, I really didn't see that coming. This is a lot to write about a film for me and I'm sure most people who happen to see it will disagree but I had to get all this off my chest.
Joaquin is obviously a good actor who really gives this film far more than it deserves but the character is poorly developed and the writing is all over the place. Mostly it feels empty. The political stuff, riots and Thomas Wayne, feels like it was pasted in from another film.
This is a hollywood depiction of mental illness where the primary point of reference seems to be other hollywood depictions of mental illness and not real life experiences and it suffers for that. There's a moment, some dialogue between Arthur and his psychiatrist that seems like it's saying something about the way society and governments treat the mentally ill but it's just fluff really.
Todd Phillips is someone who claims to have given up making comedies because people are too easily offended these days, moans about the "far left" and is working on a biopic glorifying a racist and all round arsehole (Hulk Hogan). All that makes it hard for me to believe him as someone seriously concerned with vulnerable people.
I've grown to love comic books, I think the character of the Joker can work well and could be something more than just a colourful volatile villain. But I think this is a failure and I'm not sure if even with better more thoughtful writing and directing it could have succeeded. I don't think I enjoyed it for a second but I can see why a lot of people would. It's technically a competently made film but I find it repulsive. As someone who has suffered with mental illness for the majority of my life (I had my first psychotic episode when I was 5 years old, I've spent time in hospital, I've had multiple suicide attempts) and generally feels let down by society and distrusting of the system (the world over) and the way it treats people like me this felt really hostile.
I don't think this film had any real chance of provoking mass shootings or anything like that, it's far more likely to add fuel to the fire of growing suspicion and contempt felt for mentally ill people. I'm sure someone somewhere will tell or has told me or people expressing similar views that "It's just a comic book movie!" but that's just a huge avoidance of social responsibility.