Cast: Joaquin Phoenix

Directed By: Todd Phillips

If this movie is not a mirror for the current world scenario and you haven’t figured that out, then I don’t think any movie made or book written or song sung, will explain this point to you. Human decency. Civilities. Kindness. Qualities you’d think we’d have naturally. And yet the world suffers a dearth of them. Gotham might be a microcosm but it’s the scene in that little globe on the shelf that’s telling us what another part of the world is like and that we need to shake it up to bring the magic back.

We indulge in cinema to escape our every day lives. And yet here comes along a movie that so many are advising us not to watch, little realising that people must/should watch this cinematic pièce de résistance.

Watch it for the mirror it holds up to our world. 

Watch it for the need to change our attitudes. 

Watch it for the simple fact that we need to BE KIND.

Watch it for the music, which was the oh so perfect soundtrack to this life. From Sinatra to Gary Glitter, from Sondheim to Cream, from Jazz to show tunes, it just spoke so simply of the life being lived and then being recreated and then being reborn. I only wish some version of Man in the Mirror had been used somewhere in the film.

Watch it for Todd Phillips who has brought this much feared character to the big screen in a way many might not even have imagined.

Watch it for Joaquin Phoenix. A man who became the Joker in every way possible. From his convincing us that what’s actually in his head is reality to his taking on the name Joker, Joaquin played every scene effortlessly. For a person to be in practically every scene and support the movie on his thin frame and protruding rib cage, he constantly surprised us and yet did not really make us feel sorry for him but instead told us... be human...

Watch it for the fact that if we stop being the kids who ran away with the sign and stop being the young men who tease a woman on a train and stop being the men who beat up a defenceless man, stop being the person who gets people in trouble and stop being the person who thinks everyone else owes us a living and stop following the mean spirited rulers, the man in the mirror just might stop telling us to change our ways.

Comic books were written from real life ideas and put on paper to give an understanding and help people aspire to be better. To be Batman. To be Superman. To be Wonder Woman. But to never forget Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent or Diana.

This movie doesn’t take you out of the comic book universe. Instead, it takes its viewers to the cleaners in graphic novel style. It pulls out every dirty aspect of humanity and holds it in that gritty 70s light and honestly asks, are you gonna let that dirt clog just the screen or clean up and take that stuff with you to stain real life? It asks you if you’re listening to man in the mirror that’s telling you to change your ways. And... Rewind. Be kind.

My take: Rewind. Be Kind.

Language: English

Release date: 04^th October 2019

Based on Characters of DC Comics

Duration: 122 minutes

Genre: Crime, Fantasy, Thriller

Distributed by: Warner Bros Ltd.

Rating: 4.5/5

Reviewed by Ayesha Dominica

A fiercely independent freelance writer, Ayesha Dominica has been published regularly since age 13 in community magazines and newsletters, including an international social justice magazine ‘The Axe’. Her 6 years at the Express Group saw her work published in most of the group’s newspapers and syndicated across a number of languages. When she's not intimidating strangers with her love for polysyllabic words, she works as an artist manager for DJ Russel and curates events. She is prone to withdrawal symptoms if distanced from her books and can also be easily distracted by the colour yellow.