On October 3, a musical-psychological thriller was released in Ukrainian cinemas «Joker: Folie à Deux» starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. This is a sequel to the sensational and highly successful «Joker», which premiered in 2019 and received universal acclaim from critics and audiences, as well as a bunch of prestigious awards to boot. In the review below, we tell you what the sequel’s creators are betting on and whether it works this time.
Pluses:
Great performances from the main stars; well-rendered gloomy atmosphere; quite an interesting and bold ending;
Minuses:
The main characters do not receive proper character development; there is a lot of useless singing that does not add psychological depth and mostly hinders the plot development; the closer to the ending, the more boring the film becomes; the genres do not coexist well, and the musical hardly fits this story;
«Joker: Folie à Deux»
Genre musical psychological thriller, drama
Director Todd Phillips
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, Steve Coogan, Ken Leung, Bill Smitrovich
Premiere movie theaters
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
Two years after Arthur Fleck has committed a series of murders, including the popular TV host Murray Franklin on live television, he is locked up in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial. There, at a singing group, he meets a charming stranger, Lee, who confesses that she admires the Joker’s personality. So now, in between dealing with the not-so-friendly wardens and his new passion, Arthur is immersed in bizarre delusions in which he sings and dances as well as the outrageous Eurovision stars.
Inspired by Scorsese’s films, the first «Joker» turned out to be far from a lighthearted comic book movie, an extremely dark and talented crime drama, and most importantly — a self-contained and completely complete story. But director Todd Phillips and lead actor Joaquin Phoenix decided that they still had more to say about this character, and the musical is the right genre in which the story should move forward. After watching «Folie à Deux», it turned out that both of these decisions were wrong, as they negate all the achievements of the first film.
The authors of «Folie à Deux» are partially trying to capitalize on their previous achievements and not so much develop the character of the controversial character as simply tread water. It’s not that the mighty musical numbers and singing scenes, of which there are more than enough, are unable to add any psychological depth to the long-suffering clown. Lady Gaga is undoubtedly an outstanding performer, but her presence is severely minimized to make a significant impact on the sad situation from all sides.
Actually, if you want to see how Joaquin Phoenix feels in singing numbers, you can watch the Johnny Cash biopic «Walk the Line»; if you want to see Lady Gaga, it makes sense to remember «A Star Is Born» or just turn on her concert on YouTube. And if you missed the cool performances from Phoenix, it’s better to watch the first «Joker».
The only thing that deserves a separate mention and at least respect is the unwillingness of the creators to follow the same path as the previous time: after all, here we have a gloomy musical mixed with a court and prison thriller instead of a crime drama with psychological elements. However, at the very beginning, the viewer is presented with a short animation in the style of the good old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons, and the authors seem to be winking at Ledger’s cult «why so serious? But in this particular case, the genres don’t get along well, and they don’t work in isolation.
To a certain extent, «Folie à Deux» has become a hostage to high expectations. Where it was worth multiplying the successful findings and moments of its predecessor, the global story, and the characters along with it, are not moving anywhere. Where there is room for interesting character interaction, another song sounds, which becomes more and more annoying over time.
So what is the new «Joker» — about, the viewer will rightly ask after watching it. In some ways, this cumbersome and clumsy film with a sluggish narrative pace is similar to «Megalopolis» Coppola — it’s about everything and nothing at the same time. This is a story about love without love. About rebellion without rebellion. It’s about the madness for two, which is so catastrophically lacking even for one.
Ultimately, in its simplest interpretation, this is a Joker movie without the Joker himself; Batman, if he were involved (or an adult, relying on local mythology), could sleep well.
Such cinema, of course, is entitled to exist and can find its fans, especially since Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix unexpectedly released an excellent movie five years ago. «Folie à Deux» loses to it in all respects, but it clearly doesn’t shine on its plane, unlike the protagonist in his own crazy dreams.
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