- Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Lady Gaga
- October 4th 2024
- 138
- Todd Phillips
Joaquin Phoenix returns as Arthur Fleck/Joker in Todd Phillips’s sequel to the 2019 box office smash.
Joker became the first R-rated movie to cross over the $1 billion mark back in 2019 so it was no surprise when a sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, was announced.
This time around, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital while he awaits trial for all those murders he committed in the first film.
His lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), mounts a defence in which she claims the Joker committed those crimes and Fleck did not, while assistant district attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) argues that they are still the same person.
Before his trial, Fleck meets fellow Arkham inmate Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel (Lady Gaga) and they fall deeply in love.
The original Joker didn’t feel like it needed a sequel and it turns out there wasn’t enough substance to warrant one. Joker: Folie à Deux doesn’t have much of a new story outside of the romance plot – it simply rehashes the events of the previous film in the courtroom. There is so little meat on its bones that you can’t help but wonder if director Todd Phillips made it a musical to bulk up the runtime.
You wouldn’t expect a musical starring Joker and Harley Quinn to be dull but this is surprisingly rather boring. The film is aimless, slow and stop-start and there is no need for it to be 2 hours and 18 minutes long.
Even the musical numbers can’t liven things up. Sure, there are a couple of entertaining ones (the Joker Is Me for example) and they are well shot by cinematographer Lawrence Sher, but they are poorly executed performances of slowed-down standards.
Phoenix won the Best Actor Oscar in 2020 for his portrayal of Fleck and he gives us the same high-calibre performance here. He is remarkably brilliant as the mentally ill character so it’s a shame he is in a film that doesn’t deserve his talent.
What is most astounding is how little Gaga is given to do as Lee. Why cast this pop superstar as that iconic character and then criminally underuse her? She is the most captivating on-screen and offers a very different – more grounded – take on Harley but the film doesn’t seem that interested in her.
Joker: Folie à Deux (which means madness for two) is a classic case of style over substance. The two leads are woefully wasted in this pointless film, which is a slog to get through from start to finish.
In cinemas from Friday 4th October.
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