JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX: Folie a Don’t!

4/5

Joker: Folie a Deux is a beautiful, disjointed mess that seems to not completely know what it wants to be or what it wants to say, while somehow actually saying and doing quite a lot. Just as he did in the first film, Todd Philips is effortlessly able to continue to hold up a mirror to our broken institutions and the deplorable way in which our society (yes, I said it!) treats the mentally ill. 

Like the first film, the cinematography and visual style of the film is amazing. However, the overall outcome of nearly everything else is quite confusing.. The internet has collectively decided to gang up on the decision to make this film a musical,but I believe it actually has the potential to be an incredible Broadway show. The musical numbers ended up being my favorite parts.

At a certain point, Jaoquin Phoenix’s character Arthur Fleck is put on trial. These scenes alone could have formed the basis for a compelling courtroom drama. The movie succeeds in many of the things it aims to be, and those random ideas surprisingly work. The issue, however, is that they don’t quite come together cohesively.

There’s a serious lack of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, which is what made a lot of people hyped to see the movie in the first place. Her few scenes with Arthur are real and hard-hitting.

When the movie finally does end, it feels anticlimactic, although probably on purpose, because it all plays out similar to how it actually would in the real world. 

At the end of the day, I feel like there was some frustration in the making of this film. To me it almost felt as if Phillips and Phoenix didn’t want to make it. There are even rumors that he was strong-armed into it by Warner due to the overwhelming success of the first film. In a way, the film feels like an allegory for the real-life reactions to the franchise. 

The fans of Joker and Harley in the film mirror the real-life Jokers that caused such a panic the time the first film rolled around. They’re merely the extras, and Joker’s in the director’s chair. The fans beg for more and more insanity while Todd just wants it all to be over. The film somehow perfectly predicts the disappointment and abandonment we all feel when we don’t get what we want from him. -JS