REVIEW: Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Joker: Folie à Deux is a lot of things – a psychological drama, a legal thriller, a musical, a love story, an extension of its predecessor’s indictment of society, a comic book movie – but above all, it’s endlessly fascinating, and like Joker, it keeps you wondering what will happen next. It’s the kind of film that needs to sit with you for a while, which makes writing a review immediately upon seeing it difficult; I’m still wrestling with what I think parts of it mean, and things I didn’t like are growing on me. If nothing else, it’s engaging.
Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) lives a listless life in Arkham Asylum as he awaits trial for the five murders he’s known to have committed, having become numb, almost in a trance, no longer telling jokes, no longer laughing. But when he spies Harlene “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a patient in the less-criminal wing of the madhouse who seems to like him, suddenly, the smile returns, and the Joker is knocking at the door of Arthur’s psyche again…
Joker: Folie à Deux is an unnecessary sequel; that much is true. That isn’t a criticism, merely an observation that Joker was a story well told, perfectly capable of standing on its own. But it means that the sequel has to make a good case for its existence, and it accomplishes that by being something entirely different from Joker while recognizably existing in the same world, by telling us more about Arthur Fleck and what makes him tick while maintaining his unique brand of mania. In other words, Arthur feels like the same character in Joker: Folie à Deux, but we learn more about him. This is partly due to Joaquin Phoenix giving another outstanding performance, showing us Arthur broken, Arthur drifting, Arthur resilient, and the Joker resurgent. Once again, Phoenix makes you cry for a monster, seeing a human side to an inhuman villain that’s bedeviled pop culture for almost a century.
But is that what’s going on in Joker: Folie à Deux? Maybe, but maybe not; this film spins its premise on its head several times, at various points putting you in Arthur’s perspective and ripping you out of it, giving you a kaleidoscopic view of a psychopath. Is Arthur who his lawyer sees him as? Is he who the state sees him as? Is he who Harley and his acolytes see him as? Or is he as he sees himself… if he even knows how he sees himself? The question of who Arthur Fleck really is lies at the core of Joker: Folie à Deux, and the many forms this film takes, the musical, the courtroom drama, the prison movie, the romance, are all peeks into the many versions of the protagonist seen through the eyes of various people – different movies playing on different screens, to steal a metaphor from Scott Adams.
Along the way, every facet of society takes a drubbing once again. As an inmate of Arkham Asylum, Arthur is finally given medication to treat his mental illnesses, dutifully taking his pills every day. Imagine if the bureaucratic imbeciles in Joker had done this for him before he went on a murder spree. Only after the damage is done does the state pretend to care, only when government employees are the sole potential victims. And look at everyone’s reactions to and impressions of Arthur. There’s Arthur’s lawyer (Catherine Keener), a bit too willing to frame him as the victim; the district attorney (Harry Lawtey), with a smug look on his face as he argues the trial of the century; the guards at Arkham, led by an always terrific Brendan Gleeson, who take a little too much pleasure in mocking him; the Arkham inmates, feeding off his madness like it’s a religious experience; the Joker fans, cheering on a homicidal maniac like he’s their favorite athlete.
And then, there’s Harley Quinn. Lady Gaga’s character is mostly referred to as Lee, and as with her animated progenitor, she’s maniacally enamored with the Joker. Without giving anything away, Todd Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver understand the Joker/Harley relationship better than anyone involved in the Margot Robbie movies, and while this is wildly different than a traditional story featuring these characters, Joker: Folie à Deux has some compelling, honest, and human things to say about them and the ridiculous perceptions of them that have, unfortunately, permeated their appearances for the past decade or so. Lady Gaga is excellent in the part, playing this particular Harley Quinn, the best live-action version yet, and the way she and Phoenix play off each other is perfect.
From the outset, there were severe doubts about Joker: Folie à Deux, from its very existence to the notion of a Harley Quinn for this version of the Joker, and, most of all, the idea that this movie would be a musical. My stance from the beginning was that after Joker, Todd Phillips, Scott Silver, and Joaquin Phoenix had more than earned my trust, and Phillips doesn’t disappoint as a writer or a director. There are some wonderful shots in this movie, perfect actor placements to evoke exactly what Phillips needs you to feel about everyone on screen. The musical scenes each say something different, and they all work. (They make sense in the narrative, too.) And, as with Joker, this one doesn’t tell you what to think or how to think it; it presents its many ideas and leaves the work to the viewer. I complain about modern cinema as much as anyone, but that makes a film like this even more special; watching a director swing for the rafters like Phillips does here, making decisions he had to know people would either hate or not understand, is gratifying. As long as guys like him are out there making movies, the art form will live on, even if the misses outnumber the hits.
Whether this is a hit or a miss is in the eye of the beholder, at least artistically. I purposely stay away from other reviews before I see a movie, and that goes double for something I’m going to review, but I don’t live under a rock, so I know the reception of Joker: Folie à Deux has not been kind. And I don’t just mean mainstream critics; the reaction on social media appears largely negative. And I get it; this is not a movie for everybody, and I don’t mean that condescendingly. But it’s a movie for me, one I know I’ll be thinking about for quite a while, and that’s still growing on me as I write about it. (Perhaps I’ll write more in the future because there are some things I’d like to talk about at length.) At the same time, I’m glad Todd Phillips has said he’s done making DC movies; I can’t wait to see what he does next.
***
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Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
Plot - 8
Acting - 10
Directing/Editing - 9
Music/Sound - 8
Themes - 9
8.8
Great
Joker: Folie à Deux is a wonderful companion to its predecessor, a challenging, intelligent, heartfelt examination of madness from many perspectives, wonderfully acted and directed.
Comments (6)
Funnily, I realize now I got the Adams quote wrong; it’s actually “two movies playing on the same screen.” But that’s the gist; they all look at him and see something different.
It’s not as good as the first one, but I am impressed with how good it is, and how surprising it managed to be. There are actually a number of references to the comics in it, which is unexpected considering how different it is from the comics. For example, that white suit he’s wearing in the image above is from The Dark Night Returns.
I wasn’t a fan of this film. I was expecting it to be a mid level Joker film. Unfortunately it ended up being a flat out musical that doesn’t feel like it should belong in a DC movie.
Joaquin Phoenix killed it as the Joker again as good as the first time he acted as the mad clown. I didn’t mind Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn she did a fine job with what she was given. I was bored and almost fell asleep on some of the long painful dragging court scenes that easily could’ve been cut out of the film.
The first third of the film was fine but as it played out and the more I watched it the more puzzled and confused I got until the end where I became the most angry. This will unfortunately piss off fans of the first film like myself. It was a disrespect of who the Joker really is. I would make Harley have her own character study just like the first and restructure the Joker 2 to make it make sense to the first film.
In the end this was a rushed sequel without a plan and the studios should’ve listened to Todd Phillips of being a one shot film despite making a billion.
Most people don’t seem to have liked it. I haven’t watched or read any other reviews yet, but I’ve seen the headlines and titles and whatnot, and plenty of tweets. The last act was something I was unsure of leaving the theater; initially, I didn’t like it, but it stayed on my mind, and I kept considering what I thought it meant. It’s grown on me a lot.
I really like in this movie how it turned out Arthur Fleck isn’t the Joker. He is the “original” Joker. I think plenty of the hate stems from people who either want comic-accurate Joker (and didn’t understand first movie) or people who wanted an original to be a default backstory for the JOker.
Based on some of the things I’ve seen, I don’t think some people understand the point that Arthur isn’t the real Joker. I’m not saying people have to like it, but they appear to be missing that, and it reframes a lot of what happens. I like what it does for Arthur’s story, the idea that this one disturbed but ultimately unremarkable guy got turned into a cause celebe, and it created a madness that transformed Gotham and the world around him.
This is the first review that made it sound good. The Scott Adams bit made sense to me because we have a lot of show trials these days based on hoaxes. The shots used here are so good, that they look out of a graphic novel, the color palette and lighting, I have to look twice to see if it’s Alex Ross or like, the actual director, so Todd Phillips really has my attention. Would be a good idea to make a short list of wild ideas for such a talented director.
As amazing as Lady Gaga is, she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time too often for my liking. The off screen antics at spirit-cooking and olympic events, it just happens too often and I am put off by certain people like that. Ezra Miller would be one example.
I’m at the point where I’m looking for just about anything that is contrarian. What’s missing from this sequel is that the first one made all the right people squirm and squeal. There is some kind of hook that is needed for me to want to check this out.
I would not mind if Todd did more Joker movies, because some of my favorite bloggers openly mock what they call Clown World and it sounds like Phillips is kind of doing that with the court system and mental health system in this movie. I’m sure it will all depend on if this one hits the billion mark again, which is the main reason for a sequel, is that you’d be a fool not to do it if it can attain that significant pin level.
I probably should keep my mouth shut, but a lot of my reading in the comic realm is of Image Comics and other content outside of the Big 2 now because it’s clear that corporate hacks from a lot of indie.