Review of “Joker: Folie à Deux”: “Joker 2” is a miserable court musical

Oscar-nominated director Todd Phillips and his new sequel Joker: Folie à Deux Boldly ask the bold question: What if the most annoying man you know had an equally annoying girlfriend? And what if they sang show tunes to each other? And what if you had to watch?

The man in question is a certain Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), the social outsider who became a serial killer in 2019 jokerwho is in prison awaiting trial after the events in the first film. The girlfriend is Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), a woman with a master's degree in psychiatry and an obsession with Fleck, who allows herself to be imprisoned to better stalk him. The toxic codependent relationship between Harley Quinn and Joker has existed in the Batverse for decades – it first appeared in Batman: The Animated Seriess in 1992 – and the former doctor and the former patient who drove her mad have been explored in comics, films and television. In Phillips' new film, however, their entanglement is rewritten to be even darker and, frankly, flatter (particularly Quinn's arc), but with a lot more singing.

Yes, although he hates to tell anyone, Phillips also managed to make a movie musical about the Joker's murder trial. On paper, creating a supervillain film that isn't about setting a city on fire or threatening the world is about as subversive as a director can be. Perhaps ignoring the strict guidelines that come with franchise films and Warner Brothers' requirements and then adding singing and dancing to the mix? There was potential here for something truly subversive.

But as Fleck reminds us, some people seek not change, but simple misery. Two hours and 20 minutes long Joker: Folie à DeuxPhillips shows us how.

Following a trend of films like Mean Girls And Wonkathe marketing and creative team behind it Joker: Folie à Deux, aka Joker 2have failed to clarify that the film is a musical (a decision coming soon). Evil seems to do that too). Part of this obfuscation may be a conscious effort not to alienate oneself jokeris the original audience, but it could also be based on the idea that movie audiences don't like musicals. Mean Girls And Wonka didn't sell as musicals and were considered box office successes – now obvious musicals like that West Side Story revival and In the heights underwhelmed.

That is, and despite the reluctance, Joker 2 is essentially a movie musical – sometimes it tries to be very edgy.

Phillips uses music as a very obvious, if not very sensitive, storytelling device. Throughout the film, Fleck's sanity is in question. Everyone from judges to doctors talk about him living in a “fantasy world.” Enter: the singing and dancing. From “Get Happy” to the Carpenters’ “Close to You,” the film’s numbers offer a glimpse into Fleck’s desires, fears, and mental illness all rolled into one.

This man's surreal inner life can only be seen by peering into his insane hallucinations, where we find a sparkling, iridescent version of his trauma and mental illness.

These moments also allow Lady Gaga to take off her pop star mask and show us Stefani Germanotta, theater kid. It's good – especially when Fleck imagines himself and Harley as a kind of chaotic Sonny and Cher duo. Gaga's committed, stirring performance is proof that there's room for another Judy Garland biopic as long as she can audition.

Phoenix, on the other hand, warbles and screams through his numbers.

The result sounds like a large bird harassing another smaller bird. Phoenix's vocal performance is notoriously bad, especially considering that this man won an Oscar for the role of Johnny Cash Walk along the line. Perhaps Phillips believes his audience might not fully understand how disturbed Fleck is when he sounds gentle and delightful in his own fantasies, but Phoenix makes him sound intentionally dissonant. After about three songs, the singing starts to feel a little like some kind of petty punishment. I suppose that's the point: being inside Joker's head is supposed to be an unpleasant experience. I just wanted to be dissatisfied in a different way.

The most confusing element of Joker 2 isn't it that it's a musical; This is a court case. Although there is a rich film history of clowns and their girlfriends in courtrooms, this election is not a thrilling film.

At the heart of this two-hour and 20-minute film is the question of whether Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, is crazy and, more broadly, whether the Joker is real. As a defense strategy, his lawyer (played by Catherine Keener) claims that Fleck killed five people but that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. (The police don't know that Fleck killed his own mother, which would bring the body count to six.) Joker is this other personality and therefore Fleck cannot be held responsible. Prosecutor Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) – the man who will become the Batman villain known as Two-Face – argues that Fleck and Joker are one and the same: a violent, twisted murderer.

Watching Fleck in prison awaiting trial or standing in court waiting to go back to prison just isn't an exciting film. Dissociative identity disorder is somewhat convincing as a legal argument, but less convincing when it comes to everything that happens. (It is also important to note that, despite some portrayals in the media, people with DID are no more violent than the general public.) Court hearings need a twist or setup to heighten the drama. Starting with all the cards on the table – Arthur Fleck is responsible for the Joker or not – simply takes the air out of the genre.

Maybe that's why it's a musical?

A character who has been iconic since the 1960s, the Joker was created to terrorize Gotham City. The Joker wasn't created to sit in a prison cell and discuss legal strategies with his lawyer. There's a reason so many Batman comics and adaptations have a jailbreak scene. Batman's villains are more interesting when they commit crimes!

Phillips seems to want to emphasize more clearly that the most frightening part of the character is Joker's influence on the citizens of Gotham. If Fleck can be Joker, what's stopping everyone else in town from being Joker? If Fleck is declared insane, how can Gotham's laws keep people safe? If no one can be held accountable for a murder, it doesn't matter how powerful the Gotham Police Department is. It doesn't matter how powerful his heroes are. But aside from the huge crowds outside the courtroom, some wearing Joker masks, Phillips doesn't really show us what's happening in Gotham. We're not really led to understand what's at stake in Joker's judgment, even if it involves the destruction of a civilized society.

Worst of all, Phillips has intentionally or unintentionally created a bizarre, humorless version of My cousin Vinny. In the 1992 classic, a clown and his Italian girlfriend are the only people standing in the way of convicting two morons for murder in a city in disarray. In Joker 2A clown and his Italian-esque girlfriend are the only people standing in the way of a disorganized city that convicts a fool of murder. Imagine if Marisa Tomei wasn't charming, the clown wasn't funny, and there were no twists, no twists, and no 1963 Pontiac Tempest with independent rear suspension. Your honor, this grumpy, miserable thing is The Joker 2.