10 Movie Characters That Shocked The World

10. Arthur Fleck - Joker

Much has been written about Joaquin Phoenix Oscar-winning turn as Arthur Fleck, the incredibly awkward Travis Bickle-like character in Todd Phillips' non-canonical Joker origin story. Some loved the dark, gritty approach, others wrote it off as aping better films such as Martin Scorsese's squirm comedy The King of Comedy (De Niro, appears in both). But there was no denying Phoenix was excellent, fully embodying even the most absurd of character quirks.

Like Ledger's Joker was a response to the Patriot Act and post-9/11 USA, somehow Phoenix and Phillips tapped into an even bleaker, more cruel existence - psuedo-70s Gotham (or New York City, if you want to split hairs). Joker inspired plenty of hate fuel for the internet, the die-hard comic fans decrying the very concept of an origin story for the clown as defeating the character's reason d'etre.

But there's no denying the film, and if his acceptance speech at the Academy Awards is any indication, Phoenix himself, is mad as hell and won't take it anymore. At last we have a Joker for the Trump era.