Joker: Folie à Deux

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to 2019's Joker, set only a short time later as the now incarcerated Arthur Fleck has to deal with the looming court battle around whether he will live or die. As the court case draws ever closer, Arthur becomes entangled with another Arkham Asylum inmate, Lee Quinzel. Now that this chaotic duo are united, will Lee bring forth the Joker persona once more to reign terror upon Gotham?

 

The thing I found much easier about this film as a sequel was that I could let go of my misgivings about how this character was used, and if Arthur could really be considered 'Joker'. I acknowledged Todd Phillips was running his own tale, and it just was tied up in branding to get that extra backing. So I found myself a bit more invested in Arthur Fleck and the consequences of his actions from the first film. In fact, some of the very best scenes for me are when Arthur has to confront the horrors of what he has just recently done or experienced; moments like the psych evaluation scene early on were really evocative. But the best scenes were the character witness ones in the trials, particularly that of Gary Puddles. To see the real life horror experienced by someone Joker spared and how he can't reconcile that moment within himself was perhaps the most moving instance of the feature.

 

Todd Phillips' bleak style gets to be tampered with here, he bleeds in the colour of performance musical acts and blends it into the morbid palette of his Gotham. I'm also pleased to hear the original score, that oppressive warble that holds our characters' prisoner in a sort of despair.

 

Brendan Gleeson, who played Jackie Sullivan, is quite grounded as the bully guard who charms and manipulates his prisoners/power; Gleeson can go from moments of being amiable to sudden explosive fits of violence. Zazie Beetz, who played Sophie Dumond, is only back for a scene but it reminds you why she served so well in the first film; Beetz's role comes across as hardened by the events she survived in the original feature. Steve Coogan, who played Paddy Meyers, feels like a real hard hitting tv journalist; Coogan is very shrewd and calculated in his scene with Phoenix and the pair verbally spar quite well. Leigh Gill, who played Gary Puddles, is a role that rivals for the best performance of the feature; the grief and trauma Gill acts out in the wake of surviving a Joker attack is gripping.

 

However, the best performance came from Joaquin Phoenix, who played Arthur Fleck. I didn't really enjoy Phoenix in the first film, it felt like he was measuring up to the role and pushing some weird behavioural choices for the character. The sequel seems to have drawn new life from Phoenix, he's a bit more relaxed and aloof in the role, which is quite freeing. Fleck seems impassive when we reconnect with him, he's found a blank middle where he doesn't have to be Joker to survive. Watching Phoenix split and break his role as he pantomimes the character's dead mother is a bleak peak into his mind. The revelry and wonder he portrays when he first encounters Lee (Gaga) is a moment of fantasy that builds and pours through the whole narrative. I loved seeing Phoenix ham it up in the Joker persona, building to the chaos we all expect. It was equally interesting watching that dismantle within him, as he loses the ability to be the killer everyone expects of him. It's a gentler, more vulnerable Arthur, but one who wouldn't be this well-defined without all the history of the first film.

 

Joker: Folie à Deux is often a poor sequel, but it started out on shaky foundations. This film is a constant reminder that we're watching Todd Phillips' Arthur Fleck, anything resembling Joker is a bad costume and clown make-up. The idea that the film ignites by a sort of manipulated love story, in which Lee and Arthur push each other to the extremes of chaos in order to reignite the Joker persona, is a bit absurd. It feels like another expected moment, the two wild crazy loners ignite their worst selves together, we've had the Joker and Harley Quinn relationship painted up and glamorised weakly before. Another time feels excessive. It becomes hard to account for Lee, the why of her is pretty underwhelming, and it doesn't drive the story in any new unexpected direction. Ultimately, the film becomes Arthur pining for a romance that feels poorly earned through transportative musical fantasies. The musical genre elements of the film are poorly constructed and fail to blend well with the fantasies seen in the original Joker. Overall, this film puts a lot of emphasis on the flashy storyline, Joker getting romantic but fails to have much fun with what could have been that boiling pot court drama. The conclusion of this film does what every Joker story knows how to do; gently reminds us the Joker is entirely replaceable and the guy we've been following for two films couldn't live up to the idea forever. It's a cop out move, and it undercuts a lot of the work trying to make this a long form, engaging Joker narrative. The film also crudely inserts a prison rape scene for no reason than to show brutality. The Joker films are edgy and dark, but the purpose behind them is often very shallow.

 

I was entirely put to sleep by the pacing on this feature, the editing was sluggish and often lingered past the point it needed to. Worse than that was the soundtrack and musical numbers of the film. The covers chosen were a very jumbled mish mash that had not so subtle links to Joker motifs. While Lady Gaga sung well for most of her songs, the numbers themselves weren't very inspired, while Phoenix underperformed quite notably in the singing component.

 

Lady Gaga, who played Lee Quinzel, has been on a real rough streak with roles of late; there is just no emotion behind her line delivery in this one, and it makes for an uninteresting lead. Catherine Keener, who played MaryAnne Stewart, was quite a generic lawyer role that made little impression; Keener just didn't define her role's feelings nor engaged with other characters much beyond a surface level. Harry Lawtey, who played Harvey Dent, might be one of the worst on-screen depictions of Dent we'll ever have; Lawtey's prosecutor tends to drone and lacks any kind of charisma.

 

A fitting end to one of the worst written Jokers for the screen, maybe now we'll finally stop chasing Heath Ledger's shadow. I would give Joker: Folie à Deux a 3.5/10.