Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz, Brendan Gleeson, Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener
Some sequels are content to simply redo the same movie. Others expand the
narrative and introduce new characters. A few decide they want to destroy
their own creation and purposely antagonise fans with a movie that bears
little resemblance to its predecessor. Joker: Folie á Deux, Todd Phillips' sequel to his smash hit
2019 Joker origin story, does all three. It replays the events of the first film via a court
trial. It progresses the story and introduces a love interest for its
deranged protagonist. But aside from its sickly colour palette and a setting
inspired by the grime of '70s New York, it bears little resemblance to
2019's Joker, chiefly because it's a musical.
Yes, you read that correctly. Not since
Gremlins 2: The New Batch has an immediate sequel dared to
take such a large swing. And swing Folie á Deux occasionally
does, with musical numbers drawing on classic popular songs from the jazz
age to the flower power era.
And just like Gremlins 2, Folie á Deux opens with a nod to Looney Tunes with a
sequence animated by Sylvain Chomet that serves as a sort of
last-time-on-Joker intro. The animation style doesn't look much like a
Looney Tunes cartoon though, an early sign that Philips may not be entirely
committed to the bit.
Following his rampage in the first film, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) aka "Joker" is incarcerated in Arkham sanitorium while awaiting his
trial. He enjoys celebrity status among his guards, who are constantly
asking him to tell jokes and requesting his autograph. He has a friendly
rapport with Jackie (Brendan Gleeson) a burly Irish guard of the sort
you might find in a '30s Warner Bros Jimmy Cagney movie, but Jackie is quick
to correct Arthur whenever he crosses a line.
When Arthur joins a prison singing group he attracts the attention of Lee
(Lady Gaga), a deranged young arsonist who idolises Joker. The two
begin a romance (you might say a "bad romance") that is disrupted when Lee
is released. But when Arthur's trial begins, Lee attends every session, her
appearance morphing into an alter ego comic book fans will recognise as that
of Harley Quinn.
Unable to express their feelings with their own words, Arthur and Lee use
the lyrics of classic pop tunes. Sometimes they simply warble in the reality
of their everyday situation, while elsewhere we get dream sequences in which
the pair imagine themselves as the hosts of a Sonny & Cher-alike TV
variety show. The latter are never as elaborate as you might expect, and
Philips displays little flair for choreography and staging. Despite
Folie á Deux's massive budget (which despite playing out mostly in a few rooms, is 20
times that of
Godzilla Minus One!!!), the musical sequences here are no more impressive than the sort of
numbers put together by actual '70s variety shows. If you're expecting a
courtroom number like the one from Lars von Trier's
Dancer in the Dark (a musical that actually pulls off the feat
of being gritty and depressing while also toe-tappingly fabulous), you'll be
sorely disappointed. Phoenix is no singer, and for the most part Gaga is
stifling her talent by playing a woman who isn't exactly a chanteuse, so the
vocals of both performers are like nails on chalkboard. There's an
inevitable degree of emotion derived from borrowing some of the most moving
pop songs ever composed, but it all feels like a case of stolen
valour.
Musical fans will find Folie á Deux a slog, but comic book
movie fans will likely struggle even more. The elements you might expect of
such fare have been purposely stripped away. There's no specific nemesis for
Arthur to battle, there's nothing that could be considered an action
set-piece, and the violence of the first film is practically non-existent
here. The Joker is traditionally known as a criminal mastermind, but that's
not what we get here. Arthur is, as his makeup implies, simply a clown, and
any threat he may have had in the first movie is nullified by the
self-awareness he develops here.
While the first movie may have been heavily derivative of
Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, at least that mashup gave it a secondhand sense of direction. With
Folie a Deux, Phillips doesn't settle on mimicking a couple of classics but rather
fills his film with bits and pieces reassembled from a variety of sources,
from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to
One from the Heart, while the trial plays as a deeply unfunny pastiche of Southern courtroom
dramas.
Gremlins 2 was Joe Dante's way of rebelling against Warner
Bros and his own success. His sequel upset many fans of the first movie but
Gremlins 2 displays a knowledge of and affection for the
influences he leans into with that divisive movie. Phillips was quoted early
on as being interested in making a Joker sequel, so this isn't
a case of a filmmaker trying to get himself out of a contract through
cinematic arson. This is a movie Phillips actually wanted to make, so why
does it play like it's made by someone who has no interest in either a
Joker sequel or a musical?
Joker: Folie á Deux is on UK/ROI VOD now.
