KV: It’s been five years and one global pandemic since we last saw Joaquin Phoenix giggle his way across the big screen as Arthur Fleck aka the Joker. The first instalment follows Fleck, a clown and would be stand-up comedian, as he is repeatedly brutalised by people and systems in virtually every part of his life. These dire circumstances and his consequent declining mental health lead him to bouts of violence, culminating in a live on-air assassination of late night talk show host, Murray Franklin. Franklin’s murder sparks a powder keg of social unrest in Gotham, and leads to riots and the emergence of the Joker as a cult hero.

In Joker: Folie a Deux, Phoenix is joined by Lady Gaga and about a million cigarettes for a musical sequel to Fleck’s story. While it seems an odd genre in which to stage the sequel, mercifully I don’t think this film can be lumped in with the disappointing surprise musicals that Hollywood has inflicted upon us in the last couple of years (I’m looking at you Mean Girls and Wonka). Nevertheless, this wasn’t as effective or enjoyable a sequel as I had hoped it would be. Zoe, could you furnish us with a plot summary, and also do you think Joaquin knew he was singing the Kath and Kim theme song?

ZA: I am not sure if he was aware, but it certainly sent a pulse of energy through the local cinema when that needle dropped. Actually, the ambiguity of whether the actors and filmmakers were in on a joke is pretty pervasive throughout the film.

Okay, so the narrative picks up four years after Fleck’s crime spree, where he is imprisoned in Arkham State Hospital awaiting trial. In this time, a TV movie and a book about his crimes has been released, in tandem with a swell of public notoriety and support for the Joker. The tension of the film centres on whether Fleck once again succumbs to the pressures of the systems he is shackled within. This time around, that’s the prison and court system, and now also the external pressures of a galvanised movement rallying behind him to become the anarchic and violent figurehead they long for. In other words, will he go Full Jokermode? 

Due to his unblemished record during his incarceration, and having caught the eye of the menacing guard with the culturally unambiguous name of Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson), he is extended the privilege of attending a singing group in the low-security part of the hospital. There he meets Lee Quinzel, and they strike up what some might call a Bad Romance. As this develops, his lawyer (eternal dime Catherine Keener) is pursuing the classic DID defence to come up against the most punchable district attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) put to screen. 

Obviously this all plays out between the aforementioned show tunes which honestly, I found both entertaining and tedious. There were some really good throughlines with the musical cutaways, but often broke the tension, making the momentum of the film feel laborious. 

What are your thoughts, Katie? 

KV: To be honest, this movie really dragged for me. Part musical romance and part courtroom drama, it felt like the narrative had little driving it forward that wasn’t riding the coattails the first movie. The new relationships and characters established in Folie a Deux are, for the most part, not particularly well fleshed out, including the central relationship with Lee, aka Harley Quinn. Her character is less a fully realised person than a poorly rendered embodiment of the fanatical furore surrounding the Joker, and the mob’s abuse of Fleck in service of its love of the Joker. Also, I ordinarily would not comment on another woman’s appearance, but I fear Lady Gaga has what is known as “a face that has seen an iphone”, which felt a bit out of place in the Gotham/Arkham. I also questioned her casting because she rarely treats the audience to her full vocal range, opting instead for breathy delivery in most of the numbers. No doubt this was an intentional choice by Gaga in her characterisation of the calculating Lee, but it meant that most of the tunes didn’t slap nearly as hard as they could have.

How did you feel all of this hung together, Zoe?

ZA: I think ultimately I enjoyed thinking about this movie more than I enjoyed watching it. I think it was really interesting as a dialogue between the first movie and its reception, with Joker: Folie a Deux acting as a middle finger to how its predecessor was misunderstood and weaponised. The first movie is a grim rendering of a very damaged and unwell person who is driven to violence through the absence of support, care or connection in any part of his world. It was labelled as dangerous and glamourising incel mass shooters before it was released, implying Fleck was portrayed as a hero to be emulated. I certainly remember a lot of discourse post its release about Phoenix’s Joker being cool, which I will concede the stair scene made him look slick (but if anything, glorified paedophile Gary Glitter). 

Within the world of Joker: Folie a Deux there is pressure from multiple forces pushing Fleck toward being this caricature, who is powerful, charismatic and violent, because they can gain from Arthur only by him subsuming his identity to the Joker. These forces, between Lee, Dent, and the jokerfied masses, act as a mirror to the misappropriation and misinterpretation of The Joker (2019); they don’t want Fleck to be the sad figure at the mercy of society, they want him to be a symbol and an icon.  

There is a repeated line throughout the film of “giving the people what they want,” which the film delivers to an extent, with the tinge of a monkey’s paw wish. The musical numbers are the prime example of this, which often interrupt emotional and tense scenes or are the stage for acts of violence. If the audience does not want to see Arthur for the vulnerable person he is and purely want him to be entertaining, then the filmmakers make him literally perform. 

While the performances by the entire cast are solid, it’s a stilted and laborious watch which, in my opinion, is by design. Between the musical numbers, the courtroom drama, the romance and the prison narratives, the momentum felt sluggish and the objective muddied. The analogue of Joker going on Murray’s talk show, in this film, is a painful courtroom sequence of the Joker playing the Southern Lawyer trope, which could only elicit a smile from me if I carved one into my face. 

I am not entirely sure if we as an audience were meant to enjoy this film, or whether we weren’t in on the joke. 

 

Joker: Folie a Deux is currently playing in cinemas.