Not only the acting is amazing but the story itself, too!

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2019)

Okay, let me start with this - I fully understand all the hype surrounding Phoenix and Phillips - the acting, the directing, everything is extraordinary. But one thing that is not mentioned enough, and seems like thrown in the garbage, is the story of the Joker. Very few people talk about the story and those who are talking about it take it as a terrible story, with a huge gap in the storylines, and in the ages between the Joker and Batman. BUT this is exactly what makes the story perfect. Let's start with the facts:

The Joker seems to be like 40-50 ages old, and Bruce Wayne is still a kid - this makes the Joker at about 70 years old when those two meet in the future.
Bruce's parents are not killed in a rant but in a quiet night, after watching a movie.
Bruce's parents are not killed by some guy wearing a clown mask but by a poor man who killed them just to rob them.

So, this looks like a huge plot gap. But let's look from the other perspective, which was shown in the last scene - the whole movie was actually what Arthur had in his head - nothing of this really happened. He is just put in Arkham hospital for his mental illness and that's where he develops his Joker personality. Then, we have that rant in Arkham hospital (part of the original Batman story) when the Joker runs away, and in my opinion only then he becomes the real Joker, having already developed the Joker personality in his head.
Here are some facts and questions:

The Joker, both in the comics and the movies, is with unknown history - nobody knows where this guy came from, the only thing that's known is he spent some time in Arkham hospital.
If all of those things really happened, a lot of people should have known and remember what's the story behind the Joker - especially that he killed a tv host on live tv.
We were shown in the movie that Arthur has some hallucinations with the girl next door - why he should stop there and not have even bigger ones?
If the Joker really killed this big guy who sold him the gun, why the little guy, who the Joker let go, did not call the police, especially after his friend was killed?
And of course, the thing with the clocks - we have 2 clocks shown on screen during the movie, both of them showing 11:11 - the time where the people dream about what they really like. The night show, with De Niro being the host, starts at 11:00. And if we do the math, The Joker kills the host at about 11:11.
And last, the story itself - this movie IS DEFINITELY related to the DC Universe and the Batman movies - there is no way it is not related when we have Thomas and Bruce Wayne mentioned so many times. Having it related, makes it impossible for having such huge gaps in the plot.

So, in my opinion this makes the movie even greater - we have great acting and directing but great story, as well, which is being disregarded, and explains even in a greater way what The Joker really is and what made him become who he really is.