By Brendan Duneghy
After the wildly successful “Joker” hit over $1 billion at the box office, setting a new record for R-rated movies, fans were elated to see Joaquin Phoenix cast as the unparalleled mentally ill Joker once again. This time with his partner in crime Lee Quinzel also known as Harley Quinn. Played by Lady Gaga. After two and a half years since the announcement of “Joker Folie à Deux” I’d argue that many Joker lovers left feeling depressed as I did and here’s why.
Overall, this film was a major let down from the first, it really only kept me captivated about the last 15 minutes. I attribute this to the lack of ingenuity involved in making the plot. First of all this film was never meant to be a sequel and it clearly shows, the scenes brought me to many places but a meaningful ending wasn’t one of them. This film felt disjointed to say the least from both the movie itself and the first film. It was like the movie forgot to add the batter to the cake, but still baked the cake anyways.
The musical aspect was the main downfall of this movie, it felt clunky and forced. I can’t seem to understand who thought it was a good idea to make the twisted, often demeted Joker sing in the unnatural way that he did. It works wonderfully in “West Side Story,” but not here. Whenever it felt like the Joker of old was settling in, he comes in with his delusional partner Lee or sometimes without, singing along and throwing away the whole vibe previously laid out. It didn’t work, with the exception of two songs at most. I can’t help but conjure the thought of, but why? The attempt was nice but they failed miserably and I’m certain the final box office numbers will prove this.
The writing was not good in my estimation as the story went all over the place and never really drew me in until roughly the last 15 minutes. It failed to make me feel any empathy for Joker–although maybe I shouldn’t–and just went off the previous films achievements. With the addition of Joker’s significant other I was really expecting the madness to be just oozing out of him, the translation of folie à deux literally meaning ‘shared madness’ in French, this never came to be. Since it’s quite obvious they weren’t going for a repeat of the first film in ingenuity, the director Todd Phillips, and writer Scott Silver must’ve been in a folie à deux of themselves with this garbage of a movie.
Onto better news, the acting was very solid overall, but Joaquin Phoenix stole the show once again making himself believable and I’d argue proving himself the better Joker over Heath Ledger. Lady Gaga was also very good in this film; they didn’t use her as much as the trailer implied which makes me think they only brought her to sing for us.
The cinematography was also wonderful as I experienced this movie in an IMAX theater, but I don’t think it’s a requirement to experience it. The film had a dark gloomy chewed up piece of gum on a 1970’s bus bench feel to it. Very similar to the first film, it definitely captured the Joker’s presence in a world that doesn’t align with him.
Although the writing wasn’t good the film offered a surprise ending that caught me off guard. It made me ponder for some time to understand why that happened and what could come after it, but still left me depressed and feeling sad about why I went to watch this film.
In final thoughts I wouldn’t waste your three hours to watch this movie. I felt as if my time was wasted and had me wishing I could forget all about it. The first film offered an abundance of recordable memories while this one offered a disdain for movies. I’d rate “Joker Folie à Deux” 4/10 stars for people who just wanted to watch a general movie and 3/10 stars for the “Joker” lovers.
