The Joker’s origin can best be summarized in a single line: “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice,” he says in Batman: The Killing Joke. Without anything as complex as a multiverse, this origin story is as close to multiple choice as a film can allow. What is real, and what is only in his mind? Does the film even take place chronologically? I love the ambiguity, but wish for something more concrete. Much like how I wished for more Batman easter eggs while also wishing that this could’ve been the first movie to not show Thomas and Martha’s death in the alley. Or, if it had to be included and since this may or may not be real, have Arthur be the one to kill them.

Any discussion of a Joker can’t happen without comparing performances. Joaquin’s has hints of Heath Ledger’s instability and Mark Hamill’s anger, but mixes in enough depression to make it his own. It’s a depression that really takes center stage, almost making this a movie about mental health, and as the depression transforms into mad confidence, there’s enough hand held and off angle shots to be unsettling.