The Plot: Having murdered several people and incited anarchy on the streets of Gotham, Arthur Fleck AKA Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) is now incarcerated at Arkham. He’s of intense media interest though, with journalist Paddy (Steve Coogan) securing the first interview with Arthur. Passing by a music class, Arthur catches the eye of Lee (Lady Gaga) who knows exactly who he is and what he represents. They click instantly, two damaged people caught up in the whirling madness of their harsh environment. They imagine other lives, driven by the music they love and share with each other. But reality comes crashing down as Arthur awaits his trial by the legal and media circus…
The Verdict: Joker was a surprise hit in 2019, marking itself out as one of the strongest films of that year. It took a well-worn comic book story and then re-spun it through a different narrative, portraying Gotham as a realistically gritty 1980s dungeon rife with corruption and petty street crime. Most of all though, it allowed Joaquin Phoenix to give his own spin on this well-known character as a deeply-troubled man with an uncontrollable laugh – a depiction of self-destructive mental illness running rampant with devastating consequences. It scored an Oscar for Phoenix, but was only intended to be a one-off experiment within the more predictable DC cinematic universe. Resounding box office success and fame had other ideas though, prompting sequel Joker: Folie A Deux to emerge from the shadows to once again put a happy face on audiences. Or does it?
Sequels shouldn’t always be more of what came before. Down that tired old path lies predictability and safeness, which is fine for filmmakers who worry about what studio heads and popcorn-munching audiences might think of anything that plays outside the sandbox. Todd Phillips isn’t one of those filmmakers here and that much is obvious from the opening sequence of this sequel, which borrows the talents of The Triplets Of Belleville’s Sylvain Chomet to gloriously amusing effect. If only more films set within a cinematic universe were as daringly flamboyant as that. It fits well with what comes next – that sense of fleet-of-foot fantasy mixed in with the crushing weight of reality. Phillips doesn’t stop there though. The promotional materials have mostly disguised the fact that Folie A Deux (a delusion or mental illness shared by two people in close association) is actually a musical at heart, though not in the traditional, exhausting sense like Les Miserables where every sentence is sung.
Phillips’ use of music here is more akin to an expression of Arthur and Lee’s states of mind, switching from a reality to fantasy perspective like the one John Landis used so effectively in The Blues Brothers. It’s not as well-defined here given that the film is dealing with weighty, mature themes of guilt, persecution complexes and murderous intent. The tone of the film is uneven as a result. The music-driven sequences, while impressively choreographed, don’t entirely gel together with the film’s intent – which appears to be that old proverb of ‘if you live by the sword…’ That’s not to say that it’s an unsuccessful marriage of drama and music. Phillips uses a great array of vintage tracks like To Love Somebody filtered through the evocative vocals of Phoenix and Lady Gaga (both going full throttle here), even a nod to Fred Astaire at one point. It’s not without its own twisted appeal of two lost souls finding each other amidst the chaos, but it may not be to everyone’s taste.
The music serves as a distraction from the fact that the film is mostly set in and around a prison and a courtroom. They’re not the most visually exciting of locations, but Phillps finds inventive ways to play around with this with director of photography Lawrence Sher so that it doesn’t come across as staid. Phoenix, as ever, brings intense depth of character and even sympathy to sadsack Arthur, while Lady Gaga proves once again that she has a career in film if she wants to take a break from the day job. Joker: Folie A Deux is less connected to the DC cinematic universe than before, acting as more of a standalone film than its predecessor. It’s the kind of ‘come on, get happy’ film that makes you glad that you took a chance on it and its alternative approach to what a sequel should be, but it’s not necessarily a film that you’ll rush back to. Phillips is at least to be commended for not churning out something predictable like his sequels to The Hangover. While occasionally flawed, it often hits enough of the right dramatic and musical notes to make it an intriguing proposition. A mostly happy face then?
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: Come on, get happy...
Directed by Todd Phillips.
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey.