WARNING: The following review contains spoilers.

Since his debut in 1951’s “Detective Comics #168”, the Joker has stolen the hearts and minds of readers and viewers across the globe.

Debatably, some of the most influential and memorable iterations of the Clown Prince of Crime have been in movies, one movie, in particular, being Todd Phillips’ Joker. With the exceptional thrill and the brilliant use of music, it is not unlawful to describe Joker as a downright masterpiece.

Joker, released on October 4, 2019, is a film starring Joaquin Pheonix playing Arthur Fleck, a Gotham lowlife seeking purpose in a world littered with rising crime, literal garbage, and thousands of citizens asking, “Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?”

Wearing two masks, one being his happy clown and another bearing his solemn reality, Fleck is subjected to torment that was bound to lead him to madness. It is not shy of brilliant to learn at the finale of the film that he was mad all along, however that is a conversation of another magnitude and one I will not be discussing.

Pheonix performs in a way that makes the viewer ponder their own terrible sides and feel terrible feelings, and that is what makes the film so influential. Did there have a be a scene in which Fleck lathers his tongue with acrylic paint? Was it necessary to include Fleck dropping his loaded pistol in the middle of a children’s hospital during a performance? No, but that’s the point. You, the viewer, are not meant to feel good, and that is exactly what the writers, directors and visual artists aimed for and succeeded in giving you: Real-life discomfort.

Have you ever found yourself wishing for the worst? Has there ever been a point in your life when in the ignored parts of your mind all of a sudden come out and you want to embrace it? That’s what Joker emphasizes. No, I am not condoning violence, murder, theft, or any crime, nor will I ever, so let’s not have that be lost in translation.

However, it cannot be denied that Joker satisfies the darker parts of our minds, the ones some of us deny are even there. The audience wanted those Wall-Street kids to die, and they yearned for the Joker to succeed. Arthur Fleck is what brought that world to its knees and that’s exactly what we all wanted to happen.

So, what have we learned from all of this? That everybody is evil and that the rich deserve to die? No, of course not, the plot of this film never actually existed outside of the mind of Fleck, however, there is so much more to learn and take away other than that crazy people want to do crazy things.

Joker simply showed us the things that we didn’t want to see and we adored it. We watched as a criminally insane man shot and killed three educated and wealthy young men, and we rooted for the killer. We witnessed innocent lives be altered by crime set loose by the fiery anger of those who despise their oppressed lives and gave it a 5-star rating.

Joker rubbed blood and green hair dye in our faces and we thanked the directors for it. That, my friends, is how you know a film is a bewildering and surprising masterpiece, and I want to see somebody “change my mind.”