Is 2019’s Joker a masterpiece? Regardless of your answer to that question, there’s surely no denying it’s a great movie – perhaps not a great comic book movie – and a fascinating character study of a disturbed man’s descent into full-blown madness. Say what you will about how it treated the source material, but the $1 billion blockbuster put a fresh spin on the classic Batman villain and proved to be a wholly satisfactory experience. So, why make a sequel? Despite Joker feeling fairly self-contained, there were certainly places to take Arthur Fleck’s story next and his twisted romance with Harley Quinn is as good a place as any; it’s just a pity Joker: Folie à Deux proves to be little more than a self-indulgent bore.
That may sound like an overly harsh statement, so let’s get straight to the negatives to better explain. The biggest issue is that the movie simply does not work. There’s no real story and no compelling evidence this sequel needs to exist. While that’s a statement thrown around about movies far too often, it’s fitting for a sequel so devoid of any purpose. We pick up with Arthur in Arkham, he encounters Lee through a contrived set of circumstances, and then goes on trial for the crimes we saw him to commit, with the hope being to prove that Joker is a separate personality. The goal is for him to avoid the death penalty, but Arthur doesn’t seem to care and neither do we. While the movie is about Arthur coming to terms with who he is, that’s not an interesting enough arc for such a complex character and you’re left with no reason to root for or against him.
Joker already explored the complexities of Arthur Fleck and “Joker,” leaving Joker: Folie à Deux to retread old ground and hit familiar note after familiar note. From Arthur’s hauntingly skeletal frame to his outbursts of laughter and the fact everyone is horrible to him, we’ve been here and seen it all before. The movie has nothing new to say and attempts to make up for that with a meandering cartoon opening and painful musical numbers. And this isn’t coming from a comic book fan incensed that someone dare add songs to an adaptation; as a musical fan, it’s impossible to deny that these set pieces are poorly performed, badly choreographed, and wholly unimaginative. It’s La La Land in an asylum…without the style or talent that went into making that movie so unique and acclaimed.
Shockingly, filmmaker Todd Phillips was given as much as $200 million to make this follow-up. Without anything original to add beyond driving home the fact Joker is bad and definitely isn’t someone we should root for (no sh*t), he blows the budget on larking around with his friend Joaquin Phoenix after they fantasised about making a Broadway musical together. So insecure is Phillips in his vision that there’s even meta-commentary about a Joker TV movie which, while deemed bad by most, has Arthur continuously seeking validation about how great it was. Phillips made a phenomenal feature five years ago but, perhaps aware that Joker: Folie à Deux exists for all the wrong reasons, throws idea after idea at the wall in the hope something, anything, sticks.
While the musical numbers aren’t good, Lady Gaga most certainly is. She keeps her end of the bargain with a beautiful voice and compelling performance, despite most of Lee’s actions making little to no sense. The singer and actor doesn’t really get to explore “Harley Quinn” beyond a surface level so those hoping for a character study as intense as Arthur’s in Joker will be left underwhelmed. Phoenix is excellent but with only a series of songs to sink his teeth into, his tuneless renditions of familiar classics aren’t enough to hide the fact that he’s returning to the Joker well too often as Arthur and not actually bringing anything new to the table. At times, his performance feels like a parody, but primarily because the writing lets him down and asks him only to repeat what won him an Oscar. The cast is the highlight of Joker: Folie à Deux, though, with Brendon Gleeson as a wonderfully sadistic guard and the likes of Catherine Keener, Steve Coogan, and Harry Lawtey all delivering superb supporting turns. A few familiar faces from Joker are trotted out for cameos but they serve no purpose beyond being connective tissue.
At its core, Joker: Folie à Deux is a bad movie. The romance is unsatisfying, the story paper thin, and the widely touted musical numbers a chore to sit through (as the sequel continues, it’s legitimately hard not to feel a sense of dread when Arthur or Lee break into song). Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score is good and there are at least a few occasions where Phillips shows glimmers of what made Joker so memorable, usually courtesy of some fantastic visuals. A lot of money was spent on set design, but the colourful stages feel artificial and lifeless. With so much of this movie playing out in Arthur’s head, perhaps that’s the point. There are glimmers of a great movie at times – had the movie either remained in the asylum or taken place primarily in court, it could have been a winner – but they’re few and far between and difficult to remember when so overshadowed by mediocrity.
When the Joker sequel reaches its final act, a baffling courtroom confession is punctuated by an ending which will disappoint and anger viewers in equal measures. Clearly meant to be powerful, it rings hollow when Phillip has so little to say and leaves you wondering, again, “What was the point?” Is the filmmaker fighting back against allegations Joker was a piece for incels to rally around? If so, he’s made a movie with a strong message for the few hundred weirdos that think Arthur is a hero, solely to make himself feel better. At this stage, DC might as well stand for Disappointing Content because that’s all this movie is; it’s content to get people in theaters (which isn’t working based on current box office projections) and to hopefully, down the line, tout big Max streaming numbers. Ironic when this is by-the-numbers filmmaking at its worst.
Lady Gaga shines and Joaquin Phoenix brings more of the same to Joker: Folie à Deux, a wholly unnecessary sequel with no new ideas and nothing to say. It doesn’t work as a movie or a musical. What a waste of $200 million. ⭐