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On the one hand, “Joker: Folie á Deux” doesn’t gravely suffer from most of the original film’s biggest flaws: overbearing pretentiousness, ham-fisted themes and an unoriginal premise that clumsily rips off “The King of Comedy.”
On the other hand, the overly long 138-minute sequel’s courtroom drama premise was doomed from the start. Was anyone really that curious about the legal repercussions Fleck would face for shooting Murray Franklin in the head on live television? Given that a “Joker” sequel was initially not in the cards for Warner Bros., it’s no surprise that this follow-up didn’t yield the most interesting results.
But even though the movie is confined by its Arkham State Hospital setting, writer-director Todd Phillips still takes some interesting risks, some borne out of frustration for how his first movie was received.
Phillips never intended to generate sympathy for the Joker when he chose to humanize the anti-hero in the 2019 film. Alas, some troubled fans identified with Arthur Fleck’s self-pity and desire to enact retribution on society — perhaps because Phillips has never been successful at meaningfully analyzing masculine degeneracy, despite repeated attempts spanning his career.
Regardless, this sequel vengefully spits in those fans’ faces, reminding them that Phillips only ever saw Fleck as a total loser. Fleck still maintains a grassroots following in “Folie á Deux,” but his ultimate admission of responsibility squelches any misinterpretations of his character as someone worth rooting for.
Lady Gaga’s take on Harley Quinn is one of the film’s greatest strengths. She plays the role of a seductive weirdo well, especially when the movie isn’t too consumed in melodrama that bogs down its earnestness. Gaga succeeds at grounding the musical numbers, which benefit the movie by underscoring Fleck’s desperation in a less sloggy way than it otherwise would have.
The variety show segments are also heightened by Gaga’s inclusion, who sings alongside Joaquin Phoenix, who depicts the Joker character more restrained and emotive than previously portrayed. These sequences break up the slow-paced narrative and add to the overall uneasy mood of the movie, something that “Folie á Deux” does better than its predecessor.
But not every left-field decision pays off. The movie admirably opens with a two-minute animated sequence that vividly expresses the urgency of Fleck’s inner battle with his Joker personality, but it certainly doesn’t add to our understanding of it. It’s half-baked crumbs like this that make the whole affair feel like a wasted opportunity.
This sequel doesn’t engage with its themes in the same fake-deep “we live in a society” way that the first film did, but it often tries too hard to be serious.
When Harley Quinn is introduced to Fleck, she blasts a finger gun at her temple to the tune of an intense orchestral score — pure goofiness masquerading as a dark and foreboding scene. When Arthur finds her dejected, smoking a cigarette on the Joker Stairs, the movie comes across as more self-indulgent than anything.
While not as much of an artistic failure as its abysmal box office earnings might suggest, “Joker: Folie á Deux” unfortunately works in service of its least interesting ideas and doesn’t go far enough in embracing its eccentricities.
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Contact Henry Adams via email: henry.adams@pepperdine.edu
