Warner Bros. Pictures
Five years ago, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix brought a very different version of the signature Batman villain, The Joker, to vivid and often extremely uncomfortable life, turning the comic book story into a modern version of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver with its unrelenting grimness and extreme violence. In that film, the already psychologically damaged Arthur Fleck — a performance for which Phoenix received a well-deserved Academy Award, making him one of two Joker actors to do so — descends further into madness because of how he is treated, or rather completely overlooked, by society resulting in five murders, including one very publicly on live television when he murders talk show host Murray Franklin (Taxi Driver star Robert De Niro in a bit of meta casting). It should be noted, Fleck actually committed a sixth murder, his mother, of which the authorities are unaware. The end of the first film was pretty nihilistic with Joker inspiring anarchy in Gotham, his own growing cult of clown-mask wearing followers on the rampage as he is hauled off to jail. So where does the new movie start?
Joker: Folie À Deux (the title means a delusion or mental illness shared by two people in close association) begins in a way you would not expect — with what appears to be a new Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short titled ‘Me and My Shadow’. Don’t be fooled because this is basically a recap of the events that led to the death of Franklin, making it appear that Fleck is suffering from multiple personality disorder, that Joker is a separate entity. Fleck’s shadow commits the murder but when police arrive, the shadow disappears and implicates Fleck as the killer. The film shifts to live action where we find Fleck now imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, his lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), doing all she can to prove Fleck has multiple personalities (or at least one murderous one) and that his time incarcerated with no issues should go a long way into getting him out of Arkham and into a facility where he can get the help he so desperately needs (behind Fleck’s back, though, she seems to have no belief that he’ll ever be released from Arkham).
Fleck has become a sort of comical pet to the guards, particularly Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson), who takes pity on Fleck, giving him a cigarette in exchange for a joke. One day en route through the prison to see his lawyer, Fleck and the guards pass a music class in which Fleck makes eye contact with a young woman. Sullivan takes note and actually gets Fleck into the class, even though he’s in the higher security area of the prison. Fleck and the woman, Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), find a spark as they sing together in class and things begin to escalate into what appears to be a romance. But after Lee sets the movie room on fire one night while the assembled prisoners and guards are watching the 1953 Fred Astaire musical The Band Wagon, the two seem to try an escape but are captured at the gates. Lee is improbably released, telling Arthur that the facility feels he’s a bad influence on her but as his trial for the murder approaches, she will be there to stand up for him (the two clicked because of what Lee tells him is a shared history, from the same neighborhood, both of their fathers dead, she set her parents’ apartment building on fire — which gets him to admit to the killing of his mother to her). As the trial begins and his feelings for Lee continue to grow, Arthur falls further into madness, conjuring up lavish musical numbers featuring the two of them, but the question is is Arthur going more insane or actually finding clarity in his situation? It all comes to a head in the courtroom after he fires his lawyer, represents himself in full Joker regalia and makes a stunning admission that rocks everyone’s world.
I have to admit that I was not the biggest fan of the first film, feeling it was the most relentlessly depressing movie I think I’d ever seen. It was not the ‘feel good movie of the year’ for sure, but Phoenix’s performance was electrifying and he deserved that Oscar (just as much as Heath Ledger did for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight). Phillips was mostly known for comedy films up to that point but he and his team did a great job of making the film have the look and feel of a 1970s crime drama, although with much more explicit violence. Joker does have a timelessness about it because it’s not specifically set in a recognizable era. Joker: Folie À Deux maintains that feel, giving the prison scenes a sort of The Green Mile/The Shawshank Redemption vibe. Phillips’ direction here is actually quite spectacular, employing some cool angles and deftly switching from the grittiness of Arthur’s reality to the slick Hollywood aesthetic for those musical numbers. And don’t let the thought of this being a ‘musical’ put you off. Phillips borrows the conceit used in the film adaptation of Chicago, placing the major musical moments firmly in the imaginations of Arthur and Lee (they are the only two characters who actually sing in the film), although there are a couple of instances of them sweetly serenading one another. The music and the romantic angle really helps this film not feel as oppressively bleak as the first one.
If you have not yet seen the film, skip this paragraph because there are some unavoidable spoilers.
And here is where Joker: Folie À Deux will cause division among the fans of the original — Phillips and Phoenix have eschewed the escalation of Joker’s cult wreaking havoc on Gotham for what is essentially a courtroom drama, a story that wants to convince the public and the audience that Fleck is an innocent man, in a way, not responsible for his actions by reason of insanity. Arthur is never outside the prison unless he’s in court (until the climax), but as the trial looms his followers are gathering again outside the building to demand his freedom. Without giving too much of the film’s final moments away, what this story actually becomes is a damning indictment of the cult of personality and how fickle those fans can be when the ‘hero’ or ‘leader’ of the cult is exposed — or exposes themselves — as something or someone other than who the followers believed them to be. The whole thing also completely flips the script on the traditional Joker/Harley Quinn storyline, which will also upset the hardcore fans, with the end result suggesting this will definitely not become a trilogy. In fact, the film’s conclusion suggests that Arthur Fleck was actually not the Joker from Batman lore we all know and love (although we do see one Gotham skyscraper with the name Wayne on it, the only indication that Bruce Wayne does exist in this universe), and the real Joker is actually lurking within the prison walls. It is a quite stunning turn of events that puts a firm ‘The End’ on this particular story.
Spoiler-free from here on, so continue reading!
Warner Bros. Pictures
Once again, Phoenix turns in another electrifying performance but not because of his outrageously violent behavior. Now he has to dial it way down, walking a very thin tightrope between madness and sanity (what little of that he actually has), giving Arthur a flicker of humanity as he falls harder and harder for Lee. This Arthur is not a crazed killer out to avenge the trauma that informed his life. This is an Arthur who is trying to be a model prisoner, one who is trying to convince himself that Joker is separate from himself, an Arthur that actually has a heart and can thrive when he feels that someone actually loves him. That is really what Arthur Fleck has always craved — love. From his mother, from his neighbor Sophie (Zazie Beetz returns as a witness for the prosecution in one courtroom scene), from society in general. It really is a stunning contrast to his performance in the first film. Phoenix also acquits himself well in the musical numbers, giving his songs a more raw, untrained, emotional voice, and also light on his feet when dancing. It really is another Oscar-worthy turn, if not for the win, he at least deserves a nomination.
One of the criticisms of the film thus far has been that Lady Gaga is under-used as Lee. To that I say — have you actually watched the movie?!? Gaga is in, I’d say, about 90% of the film, and even when she isn’t physically on screen, her presence is always felt. Lee is Arthur’s muse, she haunts his dreams in the musical numbers, she is present in the courtroom, and even when she has no dialogue in those scenes, she is present. Gaga builds that emotional connection with Phoenix, she purposely makes her voice a little less polished but still absolutely Lady Gaga, she makes a stunning courtroom entrance in her harlequin-ish outfit (no, she never colors her hair blue and pink), and her final moments with Arthur are devastating. Some may dismiss her performance as not being as powerful as Phoenix’s, but she also has to balance her character to make it make sense at the end. Lee Quinzel has just as much duality to her as Arthur, but in quite a different way and Gaga makes it work.
There is also some duality to the major supporting players, who all turn in terrific performances. Keener’s turn as Fleck’s lawyer definitely has two sides, the one who has to do her job to get Arthur out of Arkham, and the other who doesn’t believe he stands a chance. Gleeson’s duality is much more shocking as he appears to actually like Arthur, taking pity on him for most of the film, but when Arthur verbally assaults the prison guards during his trial, Gleeson’s Sullivan becomes the monster Fleck accused him of being, even though we never saw him be anything but nice to Arthur. One familiar character who actually doesn’t get to display his well-known duality is Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, played here by Harry Lawtey. Lawtey plays Dent as the self-assured and overly-confident prosecutor in the courtroom scenes, but after a shocking turn of events at the courthouse, we do get a brief glimpse of who Dent is destined to become. Leigh Gill, like Beetz, returns as Gary Puddles for an important courtroom scene, Steve Coogan has a scene as a haughty journalist interviewing Arthur in an attempt by his lawyer to change the public’s perception, Ken Leung has one scene as a doctor for the prosecution (who is brutally dismantled in court by Maryanne Stewart), and Bill Smitrovich is the judge who manages to tolerate Arthur’s antics. Jacob Lofland and Connor Storrie play Arkham inmates, with Lofland’s inmate appointing himself as Arthur’s cheerleader while Storrie is constantly lurking in the background, waiting for his big moment to come. And it does.
The songs performed in the film are mostly familiar standards but with some brilliant orchestration that turns some usually upbeat numbers like ‘Get Happy’ and ‘For Once in My Life’ into something quite foreboding. Phillips integrates the production numbers into the film so well that they really should not be off-putting to non-fans of musical movies (Phillips even hesitates to refer to the film as a musical since only the two main characters sing).
Whereas I came out of Joker utterly miserable and needing a long shower to get all the grittiness and depression off of me, my sure-to-be unpopular opinion of Joker: Folie À Deux is one of appreciation and admiration for what Phillips, Phoenix, Gaga and company managed to pull off. I was ambivalent about even attending the screening, remembering quite clearly how I felt after the first film and not wanting to feel that way again, so this film’s turn into a prison/courtroom drama was a welcome one, flipping all expectations on the traditional Joker/Harley Quinn story, pointedly demonstrating that cult leaders are often not who their followers think they are (and I’m sure there was no attempt to make a political message with the film, although some could connect some dots). For my money, Joker: Folie À Deux also demonstrate some duality in Phillips’ filmmaking by creating a story that is the opposite of the first, showing that people do suffer the consequences of their actions. I enjoyed it much more than the first, Phoenix and Gaga turn in great performances, the music works and the ending will shock. The film is already polarizing audiences, but it is a film I could definitely watch again, unlike the first. That’s my opinion, your enjoyment of the film will almost certainly be different but it’s definitely worth giving a chance.
Joker: Folie À Deux has a run time of 2 hours 18 minutes, and is rated R for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity.
Warner Bros. Pictures
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