Written by Todd Phillips And Scott Silver
Directed by Todd Phillips
Lee (to Arthur): "I wanna see the real you."
Oh boy. In things I did not have on my 2024 Bingo Card, it would be how poorly received this sequel would be. Now I wasn't expecting another billion dollar hit but the way this follow up to 2019's Joker has gone down. It's definitely surprised me. Is the movie really that bad?
I'm going to be very contrarian here and say that, nope, it's not that bad. At the very worst, it's an average movie that tried it's hand at deconstruction (not unlike a certain other director) it's title character and the impact of said character's actions. Unfortunately it doesn't really pull it off as well as it wanted to.
You could say that was a deliberate choice on Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix's part to ensure they wouldn't be strong armed into doing a third movie. In that case, both of them succeeded with that particular goal in mind. There's no danger of a third movie ever happening.
Anyways, the movie itself. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) has been residing at Arkham State Hospital where he's become a figure of ridicule for the guards, specifically the brutish Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson). He's also being prepared by his lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) to stand trial for the five people he murdered in the previous movie.
During this time, romance also crept into his life in the form of fellow patient Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Lady Gaga). She's determined to bring out his bad self and a failed escape attempt resulted in her being checked out of Arkham. Not that it matters as she was determined to be at his trial every step of the way.
For those of you who romanticise the Joker/Harley relationship, this movie won't be pleasing for you. It's another case of recent media presenting their union as wholly toxic, only this time with the roles reversed for Arthur and Lee. She's the corrosive influence and even when her lies are exposed, Arthur still won't give her up.
However as the trial proceeded and upstart DA Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) made it his mission to get Arthur the death penalty, the latter had his own epiphany of sorts. I guess it was the severe beatings or the testimonials of characters such as Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) and Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill) but either way, Arthur gor a heavy reality check.
I get why the renouncing of his Joker persona would piss people off because it did somewhat undermine the first movie but at the same time, I think it mostly worked. However I wasn't surprised when Lee rejected him for rejecting the delusion and the end scene involving a certain inmate. Oh that scene will annoy people for years. Personally, it didn't bother me that much. I wonder why.
- A same sex kiss between Harleen and a woman outside the courthouse got removed but Arthur did give fellow inmate Ricky Meline (Jacob Lofland) his first kiss.
- There's an animated opening sequence that's blatantly alluding to Peter Pan, which summed up Arthur's mental state.
- In this continuity, Gotham actually is located in New York. It's usually not in other versions.
- Connor Storrie played the inmate who did that thing and might have referenced another Joker as well. Steve Coogan was also good in his scene as TV journalist Paddy Meyers.
- Standout music: There's a lot among the cast but the highlights include That's Entertainment, (They Long To Be) Close To You, For Once In My Life, When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) and That's Life.
- Chronology: November 8th was the end of trial and this movie was set two years after the events of the first one.
I think Joker: Folie A Deux should serve as a lesson that not everything needs further expansion on but a lesson that Hollywood will refuse to learn, no matter. The movie itself in my opinion was no better or worse than the first one and my only criticism in relation to the musical elements would be that the movie should've committed more to that idea. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are on good form with this movie being more disappointing than outright awful.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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