I remember being dazzled by Jack Nicholson's Joker. Then Heath Ledger brought it to a different place and a level with his characterization. What a tragedy about Heath and that we'll never get a reprise or anything else from him again. For me, there was tremendous entertainment value in both of their portrayals. I like Joaquin Phoenix's acting (especially in
Gladiatory) and thought he did a brilliant job in
Joker. But OMG was a sad, negative, depressing movie. The problem for me is I found it non-entertaining. Watching a very sick guy mentally, let down by the system, circle the drain and lash out was not entertaining at all for me.
I had such high expectations of a Joker creation movie and went out on its first night in the theater. I don't regret seeing it, but I was profoundly disappointed. I had glanced to see some reviews were good without really reading them. After the movie, I looked more seriously at some reviews and my feelings were borne out. See this one from the NY Times. I don't think it's a spoiler:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/movies/joker-review.html