Head of Reviews Robert Flynn Reviews Joker: Folie à Deux and discusses how it makes the same mistakes as the last film
One of the many downfalls of Joker (2019) was that director Todd Phillips took himself too seriously. Phillips’ DC comic book story did not want to fall in line with other, mainstream superhero films, in fact, it tried to stray as far away as possible from that path.
Philips did not want his darker take of the DC villain to join the ranks of these films and adopted the feel of gritty Martin Scorsese films such as Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982) and would attempt to discuss and explore modern day societal issues. These very inspirations which were meant to set Joker apart were the most damning aspects of Phillips’ film. Joker presented a bloated narrative that painted politics with a very broad, vague brush and the film consequently felt like a washed out version of any Scorsese film.
The overwhelming financial success of the film meant that Phillips would have free reign on a sequel. If one thing is apparent in Joker: Folie à Deux it’s that Phillips did not learn from his mistakes from 2019’s Joker.
Phillips’ sequel picks up almost exactly where we were left off. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) has been imprisoned in Arkham Asylum and awaits trial for the murder of five people, one of which is Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro), the charming Late Night Talk Show host, who Arthur killed on live television. Arthur killed Murray while dressed as the Joker, an action which invoked a wave of violent movement across Gotham city and deified Arthur in the eyes of a number of the people of Gotham. In Folie à Deux Arthur’s Joker persona and his true self are at odds. While on trial, his lawyer (Catherine Keener) tries to prove that Arthur is a victim of societal neglect, while Arthur’s new love Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) tries to convince Arthur that he is more important when he is the Joker.
To show Arthur’s inner turmoil, Phillips trades out the Scorsese imitations for new inspirations; Hollywood musicals and courtroom dramas. The addition of the musical set pieces are perhaps Philips’ most ambitious. These musical numbers intend to show Arthur’s truer self, his imagination becoming his only form of expression. While these sequences are dispersed widely across the film, they are consistently jarring and at times disappointing. When a character unexpectedly breaks out into song it’s ungainly and the direction is quite poor. The scenes are brief and feel flat, the sequences ultimately lend no substance or emotion to Arthur’s story. Even Lady Gaga, who has proved to be an energetic and compelling screen presence, fails to elevate the film's musical elements.
Arthur faces mistreatment in every aspect of his life. The prison guard Jackie (Brendan Gleeson) belittles and abuses him, the prison itself refuses to give him the appropriate mental health aids, and love interest Lee manipulates Arthur for her own gain.
This repetitive and tortured narrative which Arthur is doomed to repeat is unfortunately identical to the original film.
The courtroom drama elements of Folie à Deux describe the events of Joker in excruciatingly mind-numbing detail. While Phillips might like to think he is bravely commenting on America’s habit of creating its own monsters, his question is more or less the same as it was before; Will society fail Arthur?
For a film that is over two hours long, Joker: Folie à Deux results in very little. If Phillips is getting at anything of substance, it is trite observations on America’s obsession with violence, an issue that was distilled concisely by auteurs such as Oliver Stone in Natural Born Killers (1994). The only relatively intriguing angle to view Joker: Folie à Deux from is from a meta-textual context; how Joker (2019) ballooned to be something it never should have been and misinterpreted by certain far right political movements. But even this reveals the core issue with Phillips' overly ambiguous sequel.
Amongst all of its genre riffs and visual references, it is obvious that Folie à Deux is obsessed with itself. Under all of the distraction and makeup, nothing of any real substance lies beneath.