Joker: Folie À Deux Movie Review | Venice Film Festival 2024

Joker: Folie À Deux is an insane, colorfully dark and unpredictable genre blend that at last captures the truism and essence of the Joker.

It’s been 5 years since Todd Phillips’ Joker premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it eventually won the top prize: The Golden Lion. Even before its wide release, the film sparked controversy and endless conversation online regarding the “danger” it represented due to its depiction of one of the most iconic villains in fiction, its approach to mental illness, and ultimately its messaging.

Thankfully, this conversation changed once the film broke records and became the highest grossing rated-r film of all time, shocking expectations. It’s thanks to this impressive feat that, perhaps unsurprisingly, a sequel was announced, and that sequel has now arrived, five years later, at the Venice Film Festival, hoping to capture the zeitgeist of the original work.

The sequel finds Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) institutionalised at Arkham, awaiting trial for his crimes as the Joker. While grappling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love in fellow inmate Haley “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga) but also discovers the music that has always been within him.

While I personally found the original film overall derivative and meandering in its intentions, despite an incredible performance by Joaquin Phoenix, that rightfully earned him an Oscar (the first for an actor playing a comic book character), what it offered was an interpretation of the clown prince of crime that simply lacked any of the interesting aspects of the character, nor did it expand on who we’d come to know the Joker to be.

Phillips’ sequel is an improvement on the first in virtually every way, as at least Joker: Folie À Deux is an inspired piece that wears its influences on its sleeve, adding much more value to itself instead of blatantly ripping off better movies. Standing as an organic continuation of the original, it’s also a radical different take on the world and character Phillips created with the 2019 hit, and what’s interesting is that these qualities may end up putting off fans of the first, given how much of a shift in direction and tone(s) it represents. Suffice it to say, the sequel is bound to gives audiences complex feelings.

Phoenix is once again great in the role, now able to deliver more nuanced work depending on whether he’s Arthur Fleck, or playing up the farce behind the make-up & colourful clothing, offering a deconstruction on the dark myth of the Joker, even if a somewhat superficial one, he’s not just a victim of the system, but rather the living embodiment of anti-system, seen as a martyr by the impoverished masses of Gotham who see him as a folk hero and laud him as he steps into trial, become a celebrity, which Arthur struggles to embrace at first.

It’s as if Todd Phillips himself is placing his own work on trial, debating whether or not Arthur Fleck and The Joker are different people. A fresh, and even meta framing, that allows this sequel to offer new insight into the character and set up right the opening scene: a Looney Tunes-esque animated opening where the Joker fights against his own shadow for control of his talk show, a dream Arthur had since he was a child, which led him to the crimes committed as the Joker.

This idea is further explored with the added dynamic brought into the film by the presence of Lady Gaga, who plays a necessary counterpart to Fleck with her iteration of Harley Quinn. The conventional power dynamics we’ve come to expect from the iconic comic-book pairing are completely flipped upside down, she not only represents a place of solace for Arthur, but in many ways also reflects many of the fans’ outlook on who the Joker is and what he symbolises.

The two share a maddening but sweeping romance that blur the lines between fantasy and reality, as Lee enters Joker’s live like a hurricane, whisking him off his feet and encouraging all his darkest tendencies, essentially the perfect pairing for the man who incited the people of Gotham into revolt.

But that said, Gaga can be distracting in the role, not that she is a bad performer, much like Phoenix in his own way she’s an absolute natural, but similarly to the issues in the first film, and the boldly unique interpretation of Phillips on these characters, it can be a challenge to see Harley Quinn on screen instead of the music superstar that Gaga is.

Especially in the musical sequences, the immersion is completely broken whenever it’s just Lee singing her heart out to Fleck, matching his level of insanity to bring out the psychopath she loves, and what is left to be seen is Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga playing dress up on stages, talk shows, dive bars and all sorts of mental fantasies that while shinning with fantastical theatrically, it becomes easy to see beyond the fantasy and artifice of the narrative, not only Phillips’ but the one that exists in their shared delusional minds; fantasies that beautifully contrast the reality of Arthur’s current existence, where the former sees Arthur as the traditional “man” holding power over Lee, while in reality Fleck barely smiles or expresses any sort of emotion when she’s not present.

The musical numbers themselves are inconsistent in quality, inherently due to Phillips’ inexperience in directing musicals, feeling gimmicky with only a brief, superficial glimpse at brilliance where Phoenix delivers a chilling rendition of Shirley Bassey’s “The Joker”, showcasing him embracing the darker side of himself to impress the alluring Lee as he testifies in court, before rapidly become tiresome once more, despite the musical structure being so fitting as a framing device to explore the inside of Arthur’s troubled mind, as well as the dynamic between him and Lee.

This is an inherent risk the film took: not just by casting the wonderful musical artist that Gaga is, but with such iconic characters of literature a “jukebox musical” was always going to be a risk, and the film could’ve been served with original songs that perhaps Gaga could’ve written, or helped written, herself. This choice would’ve emphasised the distinct visual separation between the 80s Martin Scorsese inspired reality from the Umbrella’s of Cherbourg mental fantasy Arthur escapes to in his darkest moments, especially given how Phillips’ versions of these characters are so his own, they would’ve been complimented by original music that could’ve served these versions of the characters better and even flesh out the world created by Phillips.

Even with all these issues, and much like its predecessor, it is a gorgeously shot film inspired by classic musicals exhibiting the artistic pomp & circumstance that differentiates the gritty, grimy and dirty Gotham from the wonderful paradise Arthur dreams of living in with his beloved.

What’s certain about Joker: Folie à Deux is bound to generate radical discussions, as it is already doing at the festival, with perspectives & opinions on the film varying vastly between critics and audiences, something one has to expect with such a wide range of tones and genres; the film musically flows between crime thriller into courtroom drama into dark romance and classic Hollywood musical, all fascinating pieces that come together to become quite a blurry whole. But comic-book fans will be happy with some familiar faces, names and additions, as Phillips is happier to embrace the comic-book heritage of this character with the sequel, even delivering an audacious climax that more than lives up to the legacy of one of DC Comics’ greatest characters.

Joker: Folie À Deux is perhaps too ambitious for its own good, but it crafts a more inspired identity for its gritty world and the mind of Arthur Fleck.

The result is an insane, colorfully dark and unpredictable genre blend that at last captures the truism and essence of the Joker.

FINAL GRADE: B-

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About Joker: Folie À Deux

Failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital. Upon his release, the two of them embark on a doomed romantic misadventure.

Joker: Folie À Deux comes to theaters on October 4th.