Joker: Folie à Deux can't find the right note (Movie Review)

Beware vague SPOILERS below!

When director Todd Phillips released his movie Joker in 2019, there was actual concern that the film might be so powerful it would inspire real-world violence. Threats were made, screenings were canceled and there were undercover police officers in movie theaters.

Nothing ended up happening, of course — it's a movie, not a mind control device — but at the time, you could kinda-sorta see why people were panicking. The U.S. was on edge after the Charlottesville riots a couple years prior, and Joker did indeed tap into a sort of generalized angst favored by angry young men through the ages: the government sucks, families suck, life sucks and we should burn it all down. I think Joker's biggest problem as a movie is that it can't reconcile its attempts at significance with how silly and thin that philosophy is — I mean, this is technically a Batman spinoff, is it really going to present us with a credible theory of humanity? But I give it credit for effectively channeling that kind of disaffected, adolescent rage. Joaquin Phoenix gives a luminous performance under assured direction from Phillips. Applause all around, moral panic or not.

I don't think anyone will be concerned that Joker: Folie à Deux might move us to madness. Phoenix returns as failed comedian turned public menace Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, and he's as committed as ever, compulsively laughing in a way that looks painful and baring his flesh-stretched-over-bones body. Lady Gaga comes aboard as Lee Quinzel, better known to Batman fans as Harley Quinn, and turns in a solid performance. And Phillips still knows how to compose a frame and pace a scene. The problem is none of it seems to add up to much this time.

The movie doesn't lack for ideas, but too many feel half-formed. Take the love story. Arthur is in prison following the events of the first film, where he meets Lee in a music therapy class. She's an admirer of the Joker and may be just as crazy as he is. They quickly fall in love. At one point the movie raises the possibility that Lee has ulterior motives, which is interesting, but that angle is quickly dropped, as if the movie can't quite decide what to do with the character.

In the end, Lee isn't sketched with as much detail as Arthur himself, who goes on a bit of perplexing journey. The first Joker movie traces his arc from pathetic malcontent to symbol of chaos. Folie à Deux takes him back to the start; he's again sheepish and unsure of himself, beaten down by prison life out of the spotlight. He has to work back up to his Joker persona again.

When it finally emerges, we get what is easily the best scene of the movie, where Arthur belittles a witness as he represents himself during his own murder trial. This scene radiates the same kind of "I didn't ask to be born, dad" energy the first movie channeled so well. But Folie à Deux is far more skeptical of this outlook. It's interesting that the movie is asking us to look at that ethos in a new way, but it also means it's cutting itself off from the wellspring of its energy. Folie à Deux has less of the dark resentful joy that made the first Joker pop, and more resigned dreariness.

That's Entertainment?

Here's another big element we haven't addressed yet: Folie à Deux is a musical, specifically a jukebox musical featuring mainly big band hits from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The idea is that Arthur and Lee are so full of emotion that they must break out into song when words fail, which is standard operating procedure for musicals.

It works about half the time. Some of the musical sequences, most of which are set in Arthur's fantasy world, are among the best scenes in the film. I really enjoyed the soulful rendition of "Gonna Build a Mountain," featuring Lady Gaga wailing on piano and belting full force while Joaquin Phoenix dances up a storm. I also liked the Sonny-&-Cher variety show fantasy where the two of them sing "To Love Somebody."

Other moments fall flatter, like Arthur's first growly rendition of "For Once In My Life." Audiences have been skeptical of musicals for decades; it takes a lot to win them over, and giving the first big number to Phoenix, who is far outclassed by Lady Gaga in the singing department, isn't the best move. Gaga herself is only allowed to really let rip in the pure fantasy sequences; in the "real world," she purposefully constricts her voice so she can sound more like an ordinary person. I get why they want to do this for realism purposes, but also: why are you hiring Lady Gaga, one of the greatest pop stars of her generation, if you're not going to let her give it all she has?

So we have some songs that are played for realism and some that are played as fantasy; overall, the fantastical bits are far more successful, although I did like Phoenix's desperate singing phone call towards the end of the movie.

Verdict

Joker: Folie à Deux spends a lot more time than you might expect rehashing the events of the first movie; the plot, which revolves around Arthur's trial, kind of prevents it from forming an identity of its own. And then, right at the end, as if Phillips and company remembered this is a Batman spinoff during the last day on set, there's a big action moment with practically nothing in the way of buildup.

So we have all these elements thrown into a blender: reassessing Arthur's raison d'être from the first movie, a love story, a musical, an 11th hour action movie, and there's a bit of a slice-of-life prison drama in there too. I feel like Folie à Deux should have picked something and committed. Much of the movie is striking to look at, but it never really finds a way through itself.

Movie Grade: C

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