Joker Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

2. It's About The Most Intense Movie In A Long Time

Movies shouldn't only be judged on intensity, of course, because sometimes that isn't the same as saying something is necessarily good. Mother! was intense, for instance and that rubbed half of its audience up entirely wrong. See also: Zack Snyder.

But what we should do - and it's something that gets lost in translation with jargon-heavy criticism sometimes that falls over itself to praise technicals - is judge a feel on its ability to make you feel something. In that respect, Joker is one of the most successful films ever made.

It is provocative, disturbing, occasionally funny, sometimes heartbreaking and the way Phillips plays with the dial on the intensity is incredible. As I've already said, even when you know something is about to happen, there are such subtleties and such craft in how he lays them out and builds up to them that they lose nothing for their expectedness.

At times, you'll realise it's all getting a little bit too much and it's usually when you realise you stopped breathing.