Put on a frowny face for “Joker: Folie à Deux”
“I don’t wanna sing anymore…please stop singing,” are among the final pieces of dialogue in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” the highly anticipated sequel to the 2019 smash hit “Joker,” and perfectly describe how the audience was feeling at that point in the movie. No matter what anyone thought of it, the first “Joker” movie was such a big moment in pop culture. So many scenes from the movie became instantly iconic, not to mention the unprecedented amount of money it made. It sparked outrage, was beloved by many and somehow managed to garner a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. The sequel, which should have been a home-run success, ended up being a complete critical and financial failure. I went into the movie with leveled expectations, being that I was not even particularly fond of the first film, but even I ended up feeling shocked by just how much “Joker: Folie à Deux” missed the mark.
The film centers around Arthur Fleck’s life in prison after the events of the first movie, where he meets another female inmate from a different division named Lee Quinzel, played by Lady Gaga. He struggles to reckon with his identity as “the Joker,” and his romance with Lee begins to bring out said identity further, all while he is on trial for his freedom.
Despite its overall poor quality, the film is not completely without merit. So much of this movie feels like Todd Philips addressing the reaction to the first movie in a pretty angry way, and I honestly have to respect it on some level. I admire how risky the movie was, even if most of it fell on its face. The best aspects of the film are, to no one’s surprise, carried over from the first movie. Both “Joker” and its sequel are really beautiful-looking films. While most big-budget movies nowadays are ridden with CGI and completely shot in front of greenscreens, it was nice to see a blockbuster that actually cares about the way it looks. Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as the titular character and gives another good performance. In fact, none of the performances really slack. Lady Gaga, despite how little she was given to work with, is one of the film’s bright spots and seems like a natural addition to the film’s universe. Everything else was atrocious.
When it was announced that “Joker: Folie à Deux” would be a musical, there was plenty of skepticism, but also plenty of intrigue. Why? How would it look? What kind of musical would it be? All sorts of fascinating questions were raised, and somehow, this movie fumbled every single one. It is an incredibly underwhelming musical, with only a single original song and a boring presentation to boot. Most of the sequences are well-shot but are seriously lacking any kind of hook or interesting frame. They all happen within the head of Arthur, so the movie’s pace halts every couple of minutes so that we can watch a musical number that is only tangentially related to the plot. The first two numbers were kind of interesting, but the rest of them were more of the same. It’s also a jukebox musical, and I am not a fan of jukebox musicals. So as a musical, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is a failure.
The other side of the film is a full-fledged courtroom drama revolving around Arthur either being set free or getting the death penalty. It’s awful. It’s so insanely boring that even now I struggle to say anything good about this half of the movie. I am not exaggerating when I say that this movie takes place in two locations over the course of its 130-minute runtime: the jail and the courtroom. As for why they kept us in these confined and boring spaces, I have no idea. All I know is that my eyes began to glaze over and my body went into a catatonic state anytime a court scene started.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” had potential, but is nothing short of a mess. It is a tired movie, being made out of obligation rather than love. Trite and predictable, but perhaps most criminally, boring. I can commend it for the brazen risks it took, but when the actual product is so deeply dull, any interesting choice the movie makes becomes lost in the mess. I wouldn’t recommend the film to anyone besides die-hard “Joker” fans, the number of which most likely dwindled after this movie’s release.
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