A ludicrous left turn from director Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie a Deux goes all in as a comic-book movie jukebox musical that looks fantastic yet is an unsatisfying blend of psychological crime drama and big-tune spectacle.
Occasionally a filmmaker is compelled to pull off the ultimate flex. Director Todd Phillips has had many successful films in his career (The Hangover, Old School) yet Joker was perhaps the most satisfying: a standalone origin story of the famed DC supervillain that garnered controversy, became a box-office sensation, and nabbed actor Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar.
No doubt feeling his oats, Phillips returns to the world of the madman clown with self-destruction (seemingly) his intent in his decision to create a jukebox musical anti-superhero movie. It’s bold; it’s bizarre; and most of all Joker: Folie a Deux is bad.
Joker: Folie a Deux begins with now tamed madman Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) incarcerated in Arkham Asylum for the horrendous murders committed in the first film. During a routine visit with his lawyer (Catherine Keener), Arthur meets Lee (Lady Gaga) an admirer who convinces the emotionally vulnerable and mentally unstable Fleck to wake-up from his medicated stupor and become the Joker once again.
The cinematic equivalent of “don’t shit where you eat”, Joker: Folie a Deux is almost admirable in its decision to flip-the-bird to a loyal audience who made the under-fire first Joker movie a success. Phillips’ intentionally provocative creative decisions – chief among them to follow a gritty Scorsese-style comic-book movie with a fantastical musical – was either done as a dare or a delusional mindset that fans of the first Joker movie will swallow whatever Phillips is serving.
There is only so much chocolate-coated crap any film fan can swallow, and half-way through an absurdly long Joker: Folie a Deux the dry retching already begins. Phoenix for his part delivers another dedicated turn as Fleck, yet you can’t help but wonder if the same notorious mind behind practical-joke documentary I’m Still Here got a kick from punking an audience out of their hard-earned for what is a joke of a film. Lady Gaga, meanwhile, is as bland as they come with a predictable turn (she sings! she dances!) that is more performance fart than art.
Warner Bros. not only gave the OK to Joker: Folie a Deux, but also handed over a budget of $200 million (early box-office suggests the film will bomb). For a movie studio that notoriously shelved two completed big-budget movies in Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, one could ask why Warner didn’t bury this film in their dusty archives as well.
