Clocking in at 152 minutes, director James Mangold (“Logan”) has made a rousing American epic that zooms by at lightning speed. The film does not feel like its length at all. Credit must go to the chemistry between Damon and Bale; every interaction and relationship is precisely on-point here. Mangold handles it all with the real care and feel of a filmmaking pro — the race car driving scenes here, especially at the climax, are some of the very best and most thrilling ever put on film.

Here’s my review of Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” which I saw at the TIFF earlier in September. It’s a fascinating, dark and despairing arthouse movie that also happens to have been made by a big studio. Why are critics complaining that this could spark violence by way of “incels”? Because they can’t handle the truth. What is the truth? That “Joker” is a film mirroring our own society, and it dares us to look at ourselves in the mirror. The parallels to today’s world are there — societal alienation has never felt more current than it does today. Joker aka. Arthur Fleck’s situation could attest to 21st-century anxieties; his descent into madness is immaculately horrifying because it feels all too real and anchored up by present-day realities and tensions. The film comes out at a time when the country feels at a crossroads between civility and chaos. It’s understandable that many critics are calling the film dangerous in its, supposed, call to arms and revolution, but the fact that this movie is actually sparking panic in people must mean that it has hit a societal nerve, which renders it an indelible statement of current-day socio-political anxieties.

Movies about divorce between parents have been around for ages, the same old cliches and tropes that come with the territory used over and over again. And yet, the most acclaimed movie of the festival season is just that.