This is an advance review tied to the Venice Film Festival. Joker opens in the US and UK on Oct. 4 and in Australia on Oct. 3. You can watch our video review for Joker in the player above. Joker is rated R by the MPAA for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images. Violence: People are frequently severely beaten. Individuals are also shown being shot, stabbed, choked, punched, stomped, smothered, smashed in the face, and hit by cars. Ledger earned a well-deserved Oscar for playing Joker a decade ago; Phoenix deserves the same, with Joker itself I think a strong contender for Best Picture and Best Director, too. If the alternate-universe X-Men film Logan was the first comic book film that was also a piece of cinematic art, Joker is the second.