A brilliant "stage four" evolution of the Batman universe

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2019)

To put this movie in context, the Batman series and film in the sixties was embarrassingly silly. The Burton Batman series in the nineties was marginally more serious and outrageously artificial. The Nolan series of the past decade was very serious and a great attempt was made to make it real and totally believable. The Joker in that film was totally believable and very well played by Heath Ledger, but there was still a layer of abstraction to the character, but then the ridiculous returns in the absurd storyline of an entire city held hostage in The Dark Knight Rises.
Joker, however, sets an entirely new standard that goes far beyond . While the extreme violence of the crowds of protesters was too intense to be believable (and in fact hearkens back to the mobs in The Dark Knight Returns comic book series), this film makes it so real and believable that one can completely accept it as being literally possible, completely stripping away the last vestige of artificiality in Nolan's films.
As for the mob violence, this is reminiscent of the race riots in Chicago and L.A. in the sixties, and later in the Rodney King riot of the early nineties, but to be frank, one simply can't imagine this degree of mob violence taking place in New York City without an immediate and totally overwhelming response by the police.
This said, there is truly glaring problem in the casting of Robert DiNiro, who is entirely unconvincing as an analogue of Johnny Carson. He has no natural talent in that area and is anything but engaging; coming off like the toughest guy in the house with people laughing from intimidation rather than a response to humor. He just wasn't funny and had no business in that role. Another person such as Bill Maher or Billy Connolly would have done a far better job.
The only other issue is that, at the age of 43, Phoenix was far too old to be playing against and eight-year-old Bruce wayne. By the time that Wayne would be old enough to be Batman, Joker would be in his seventies. Despite this, I can't think of any actor who could come anywhere close to matching his performance.