Visceral tension throughout

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2019)

A jaw dropping masterpiece of filmmaking. I kept waiting for it to get violent as the media hyped this to be something that would trigger would-be psychopaths. And though it had a few intense scenes, what made Joker a film that put me on the edge of my seat and caused me to forget to breathe was those moments when Arthur Fleck was so alone with his thoughts and fantasies; that he allowed himself to dive headlong into, making the audience question of what they were seeing was really happening to the character. I often found myself empathizing with the pain Phoenix placed inside of the character. And I could almost never anticipate what he was going to do next. That is what made me afraid, for two hours, to draw my next breath.