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Joker: Folie a Deux
As I suspected when I first heard about the film going into production, 2024's Joker: Folie a Deux might be one of the most pointless sequels ever made, an overblown, illogical, cringy, musical, that suffers primarily from an all over the place screenplay that can't decide if it's a sequel or a prequel, not to mention after forcing to return to the world of Arthur Fleck where a lot of stuff is thrown in the air, but none of it really lands. It also seemed about 14 hours long.
As the film opens, we learn that an incarcerated Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is still the folk hero he was at the end of the first film. A TV movie was even made about him. we also learn that Arthur is about to go on trial for the five murders he committed in the first film, working with an insanity defense. Arthur is not putting a lot of assistance into building his case, partially because he is being distracted with a patient from another wing named Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) a sort female variation on Arthur who worships the ground he walks on.
The screenplay by director Todd Phillips, Scott Silver, and Bob Kane kind of jumps all over the place as it waffles between providing justice for the people who suffered at Arthur's hands in the first film and trying to actually legitimize what he did. An underlying theme emerges as people seem to think Arthur and the Joker are separate personalities, but no one is buying that, not even Arthur and that's the most disturbing element of this movie is that Arthur doesn't possess a scintilla of remorse regarding his actions in the first film and this lack of remorse is only intensified by the presence of Harley as his cheerleader.
As for these musical numbers, not sure what Todd Phillips was thinking here. There is an imagination in the presentation, but instead of driving narrative like a musical numer is supposed to , they just bring the film to a halt and that's a serious problem for a film with a two hour and fifteen minute running time. The musical numbers don't drive the narrative or provide any answers for us, thereby making the whole Harley Quinn character pointless.
It takes about 45 minutes for the film to kick into gear ( it actually begins with a weird animated short featuring the title character that has nothing to do with the rest of the film) and the trial definitely provides some of the film's highlights. It was no surprise that halfway through the trial, Arthur fires his attorney (Catherine Keener) and wants to defend himself, but it's never really clear why or, why once he's defending himself, he's allowed to wear his joker makeup in the courtroom. And don't even get me started about the confusing conclusion, which left this reviewer unsatisfied.
Phillips does provide imaginative direction and Phoenix once again loses himself in this character and even shows he has a way with a song. It was good to see Kenner onscreen again and I also loved Brendan Gleeson as a corrections officer and Bill Smitrovich as the judge, but this movie is still an overlong and overblown mess that we could have lived without.
As I suspected when I first heard about the film going into production, 2024's Joker: Folie a Deux might be one of the most pointless sequels ever made, an overblown, illogical, cringy, musical, that suffers primarily from an all over the place screenplay that can't decide if it's a sequel or a prequel, not to mention after forcing to return to the world of Arthur Fleck where a lot of stuff is thrown in the air, but none of it really lands. It also seemed about 14 hours long.
As the film opens, we learn that an incarcerated Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is still the folk hero he was at the end of the first film. A TV movie was even made about him. we also learn that Arthur is about to go on trial for the five murders he committed in the first film, working with an insanity defense. Arthur is not putting a lot of assistance into building his case, partially because he is being distracted with a patient from another wing named Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) a sort female variation on Arthur who worships the ground he walks on.
The screenplay by director Todd Phillips, Scott Silver, and Bob Kane kind of jumps all over the place as it waffles between providing justice for the people who suffered at Arthur's hands in the first film and trying to actually legitimize what he did. An underlying theme emerges as people seem to think Arthur and the Joker are separate personalities, but no one is buying that, not even Arthur and that's the most disturbing element of this movie is that Arthur doesn't possess a scintilla of remorse regarding his actions in the first film and this lack of remorse is only intensified by the presence of Harley as his cheerleader.
As for these musical numbers, not sure what Todd Phillips was thinking here. There is an imagination in the presentation, but instead of driving narrative like a musical numer is supposed to , they just bring the film to a halt and that's a serious problem for a film with a two hour and fifteen minute running time. The musical numbers don't drive the narrative or provide any answers for us, thereby making the whole Harley Quinn character pointless.
It takes about 45 minutes for the film to kick into gear ( it actually begins with a weird animated short featuring the title character that has nothing to do with the rest of the film) and the trial definitely provides some of the film's highlights. It was no surprise that halfway through the trial, Arthur fires his attorney (Catherine Keener) and wants to defend himself, but it's never really clear why or, why once he's defending himself, he's allowed to wear his joker makeup in the courtroom. And don't even get me started about the confusing conclusion, which left this reviewer unsatisfied.
Phillips does provide imaginative direction and Phoenix once again loses himself in this character and even shows he has a way with a song. It was good to see Kenner onscreen again and I also loved Brendan Gleeson as a corrections officer and Bill Smitrovich as the judge, but this movie is still an overlong and overblown mess that we could have lived without.