10 Most Divisive Movies Of 2019

2. Joker

Joker has unquestionably been the most controversial, divisive, and most fiercely debated movie of 2019.

For some, Todd Phillips' gritty supervillain movie was simply an exercise in emboldening and apologising for angry white men, the kind who so frequently unload guns in American public spaces, in fact.

Just as passionately, though - especially outside the U.S., where gun violence is less of a hot button topic - were those who praised Joker as a precis on mental health and class warfare, namely the means through which the wealthy encourage the poor to devour one another.

Though even ardent critics of the film have roundly praised Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Arthur Fleck, there was a sharp division between those left uncomfortable by Joker's potential social "consequences," and those who found it a chillingly grounded and authentic look at how society deals with its most vulnerable.

Either way, it recently became the first R-rated movie in history to gross $1 billion, and has certainly generated a far more interesting discourse than, well, pretty much any comic book movie - if you can even call it that - in recent memory.