Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux.Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures
- Film Name: Joker: Folie à Deux
- Directed by: Todd Phillips
- Written by: Scott Silver, Todd Phillips
- Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendon Gleeson, Catherine Keener
- Length: 139 mins
- Rating: R
Could this be la deuxième folie of Todd Phillips? If you missed what happened previously, a quick recap: five years ago, Phillips presented his take on the Gotham City supervillain. A vehicle for Joaquin Phoenix to make his mark on an iconic role, and a chance for Phillips – best known for his Hangover series – to unleash his inner Scorsese, Joker was lapped up by fans to the tune of a billion dollars. It remains one of the highest-grossing R-rated films. It even earned Phoenix an Oscar for playing the titular role with commitment.
However, the film was also critiqued for its portrayal of Joker as a misunderstood man dealing with a range of maladies from physical to mental, which explain his rage and eventual murders – one of Murray Franklin live on television, as characters in the sequel remind us periodically. Joker came to be seen as possessing the potential to incite violence; a palpable incel manifesto.
Why so serious, Phillips seems to be saying, in this follow-up. Relax, it’s all entertainment. The challenge, however, is that Joker: Folie à Deux is more ponderous rather than acting as a riposte. It has its moments of movie magic, but they largely get overshadowed by the weight of this redemption endeavour.
The movie begins with an animated short, a nod to the Warner Bros. tie-in, and a Looney Tunes rendering of the main premise: Who is Arthur Fleck? At the beginning, he’s an inmate of cell E258 at Arkham, the Gotham institution that’s ripe for a gloomy montage of grey buildings, grey skies and mostly grey uniforms. Gaunt and drugged out of his mind, Fleck is waiting for the trial of the century, where it will be decided whether – as District Attorney Harvey Dent (Industry’s Harry Lawtey) intones – he’s “some kind of martyr” or, in the eyes of authorities, a monster.
Joker: Folie à Deux is a sequel one of the highest-grossing R-rated films.Scott Garfield/Warner Bros. Pictures
His lawyer Marynne Stewart (Catherine Keener) wants to show the world that Fleck is a very troubled man. Childhood abuse and society’s inability to understand Fleck has given him an alter ego, the Joker. She berates the prison guard Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson, using his Irish charm to underscore a mild and menacing figure) for the state facility’s inhumane treatment of inmates. She tries to coach Fleck for an interview with Paddy Meyers (Steve Coogan) that’s meant to show his real persona to the world. But Fleck isn’t happy when Meyers pegs him as “part-time clown and struggling stand-up comic.”
Besides, he’s being egged on by fangirl Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who connives to meet Fleck at music therapy classes at Arkham. Lee wants Fleck to own his alter ego, or who she thinks is his true self. Then again, as she tells him, “When I first saw Joker, when I saw you, I didn’t feel so alone in my life.” Is she really on his side? Fleck needs to figure this out as he’s wrestling with his dual identity.
Joker: Folie à Deux wears a rather baggy clown suit of existentialism. It tries to add some relief through song, since this is also a musical. Joker and Lee frequently break into classics, ranging from Stevie Wonder and the Carpenters to the Bee Gees. Sometimes these numbers are inspired, such as when Lee momentarily sets an otherwise staid movie night on fire, and the duo perform a bit of a derring-do to If My Friends Could See Me Now. But the other songs, even if decently croaked by Phoenix, start to make you feel fidgety rather than serving as a fantastical escape. (Believe me: I grew up on Bollywood numbers, and love narrative breaks. But even I was beginning to feel tested.)
Gaga is criminally underutilized in her role as Lee, which fans know references Harley Quinn. Besides belting song snippets, once through a prisoner plexiglass windowand another moment of glass-shattering audacity, Lee’s character is left to skulk in the backdrop of hallways and staircases – although she does make a striking entrance to the courtroom toward the end. Phoenix plays his role with the simmering intensity, as per. Those expecting a raucous or riotous turn will be disappointed though. Despite the constant prodding – “Got a joke for us today?” – the chuckles are few, and truly far between.
Several fans at the screening I attended came dressed up as Joker and Harley Quinn. If they were hoping for some sort of shared madness between the duo that leads up to a cathartic release, they were likely disappointed. There were some inspired moments on the IMAX version we witnessed together – a quadrant of coloured umbrellas against the bleakness of Arkham, the clever use of light and framing in some shots, the vintage look of TV interviews to suggest both a sense of artifice and the media circus around Joker.
Does it all come together? Not quite. On the one hand, the movie wants to move away from mythologizing Joker. On the other, it spends quite a bit of time enveloping him in cigarette curls. It’s almost a case of: the clown is dead; long live the clown. The joke is definitely on us.