God this last page with the pics of him on the car and post-Mur-RAY killing makes me want to watch the film again. Hildur Gudnadottir's score just puts the whole ending in an entire plain of its own. The building and the twisting and tightening of that tension in the last act is impeccable, when Hildur introduces the banging bin lids into the music and the riots happen around Fleck's police car and they goad him to get up and he finally paints his smile in blood, that whole act is phenomenal cinema.
Similarly the train scene and following sombre and cathartic dance into the start of his new-self is equally as fantastic.
It's easy to say Philips ripped off Taxi Driver of King of Comedy or this that the other, but it's a complete disservice to not acknowledge how he directed in conjunction with Hildur's music, his improv and bond with Phoenix and shot scenes that ratcheted up the tension impeccably. The film clearly wears its influences on its sleeves, that doesn't detract from the film, if anything it makes it harder for the film to do well, he executed it flawlessly, for me.
