While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur Fleck not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that's always been inside him.
this movie positively surprised me after hearing the negative reception a stylish, overall satisfying look at insanity, interwoven with gotham's failing administration from prisons to courts — i thought gaga's character was a well-done portrait of a fangirl that drives the insanity in arthur the singing was how the joker revealed himself, and formed a metaphysical link between gaga and joker. it felt clumsy and rough, and in a tom waits kind of way, it worked for me. they're not superstars, they're broken people living a fantasy gaga's motivation is to bring out the joker, make arthur believe that the joker is the real him, that he needs to be the joker and she's not wrong, the joker did what arthur conjured him up for — it kept him confident, it kept him safe, it built a legend that others followed, it voiced what people in gotham want to hear: that the entire system is a joke, that it has failed them the moment the illusion shatters, it shatters for everyone and their
