Joker Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs

3. It Misuses An Excellent Supporting Cast

For all the brilliance of Joaquin Phoenix's performance, he's not the only one in the film and at times it feels like the majority of the other players are mostly ignored.

It's understandable that the likes of Marc Maron, Shea Whigham, Brian Tyree Henry and Bill Camp would want to be in something this good, but they might as well have not turned up. It's great to see their faces, but they're in it so little that it's almost like being shown things you could have won after you've screwed the pooch on a game show.

Others fare slightly better: Robert DeNiro is good, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen and Zazie Beetz likewise, but this just isn't their film and while the caveat is somewhat inevitable, it still feels like a bit of a waste that could have been balanced better.