Home Movie Reviews ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ – Review
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ – Review

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ – Review

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In 2019, a cinematic behemoth was unleashed on the big screen. Todd Phillips Joker had the distinction of being both a monumental artistic and creative success, as it offered up a radically different take on one of DC Comics’ greatest ever villains, The Joker, and it struck a chord with cinemagoers and led to incredible success. Now, five years later, Phillips, alongside close collaborator and Academy Award-winner Joaquin Phoenix and pop sensation and fellow Academy Award-winner Lady Gaga, are ready to continue to tell the story of Arthur Fleck in the much buzzed-about sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, and this narrative will toy with audiences in the most unexpected way possible.

Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) institutionalised at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.

Todd Phillips’ Joker was a monumental cinematic achievement, a modern-day masterpiece of narrative, performance, atmosphere, and score, which earned rave reviews and a dominant box office gross of over $1 billion dollars. It was a film that took the greatest supervillain of all time, The Joker, and reinterpreted his character and psyche in a radically different way, leaving audiences stunned. Now, five years later, Phillips returns to continue the story of Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix), a mentally unstable and severely damaged individual whose actions unleashed chaos on the streets of Gotham City, manifesting the presence of sheer anarchy in Joker. Where 2019’s Joker was a dark and nihilistic thriller of the birth of a villain, Joker: Folie à Deux is a spinning, whirling, and bright piece of musical theatre character study. Audiences are pulled deeper into Arthur’s twisted and scarred psyche as Gotham City braces for the trial of the century, and many layers and subtexts are explored in a film that channels ‘Singing in the Rain’ by way of ‘The OJ Simpson Trial’, with the narrative leading to plenty of unexpected moments.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a character study presented as a musical, allowing audiences to delve into the fractured mind of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix). Arthur, now confined to the hell of Arkham Asylum, has become a macabre celebrity as his trial date approaches. Through the use of music, singing, and dance, the chaotic presence of Joker emerges, providing an examination of these two unique characters. Phillips finds a mix of psychological complexity and off-kilter comedy in the narrative, not to mention its lavish musical numbers, which all add to the texture and feel of the story. He also continues to build on his radically different version of Gotham City, 1984, with the environment of Arkham Asylum serving as its own character and bringing out Joker’s twisted personality. Additionally, characters like the ambitious and showboating Harvey Dent, Gotham’s District Attorney, add to the complexity of the movie, shedding light on the deeper layers of Arthur Fleck’s character.

For his performance in Joker, Joaquin Phoenix was granted an Academy Award, and most deservedly so. As the frayed, tormented, mentally disturbed and psychologically violent character, he presented an incredible take on one of pop culture’s most fascinating and unique villains. It was a performance of sympathy and malice, derangement and terror, and we witnessed the actions of a fractured soul that led to the rise of pure chaotic anarchy in a single moment of violence. Now, through the medium of song and dance, audiences are taken deeper into Fleck’s mind in Joker: Folie à Deux, and Phoenix is given room to play as only he can. Within this film, Phoenix taps his inner Fred Astaire, and his all-singing, all-dancing fantasy illusions bring out the presence of the snappy and malicious Joker, his shadow self, and this is contrasted with his waking form of the beaten down and mentally unstable Arthur. Phoenix dwells deeper into these two distinctive personalities, and we get a real character study of each personality, leading us to who the real Arthur Fleck truly is.

Injecting a dose of crazy into Joker: Folie à Deux is the presence of another seminal DC character, Harley Quinzell, portrayed here as Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a fellow patient of Arkham Asylum who becomes infatuated with Arthur and who leads him down a path of madness of her own construction. Gaga inhabits Lee with her peroxide blonde hair, crazy cat-eyed stare, and bombastic personality and exudes a sense of compulsive, antisocial and narcissistic traits that gift her with a penchant for arson and a desire to cause as much trouble as possible. She has a penchant for toying with people and has an almost Charles Manson-like grip over Arthur’s emotions as she coaxes further chaos out of Arthur in the form of Joker. Her presence not only amplifies the actions of Joker but also keeps the audience off guard when it comes to the film’s narrative, leading to plenty of surprises.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a significantly different cinematic experience compared to the first Joker film, as it is set up as a musical. Drawing inspiration from the classic musicals of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Todd Phillips and his team utilise elaborate set dressing and big band settings to delve deeper into the chaotic fantasy world in which Joker exists within Arthur Fleck’s mind. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga deliver compelling singing and dancing performances that evoke a mix of Sonny and Cher meets Bonnie and Clyde, reflecting their co-dependent mania. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher skillfully captures the oppressive world of Arthur with its sickly palettes of greens and yellows, as well as Joker’s vibrant world of red, orange, purple, and teal, creating an immersive cinematic experience for audiences. Additionally, Academy Award winner Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score expands the ambience of the film, infusing it with tension through sinister chords.

Thematically Joker: Folie à Deux delves deeper into the themes introduced in the original Joker, while also explores new ideas surrounding identity and fantasy. It takes the audience further into Arthur Fleck’s troubled mind, highlighting the extent of his fractured psyche. Audiences get to peer into the confrontation of the ego and ID of Arthur and Joker, as this film seeks to answer the the question of: Who is the real Arthur Fleck? Through its exploration of identity and reality, and the inclusion of elaborate fantasy scenes that reveal Arthur’s true self, Joker: Folie à Deux offers a textured and complex character experience that will captivate audiences seeking a deeper understanding of the character.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a film that swings for the fences with its narrative, and it’s a film that genuinely takes audiences by surprise. What we get is a loud and colourful musical experience that reveals the true character of a villain, and it offers an interesting point of view that makes for an unexpected yet intriguing picture.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures