‘Joker Folie à Deux’
Todd Phillips’ follow up takes a bold swing in an otherwise safe and oversaturated sub-genre
When Todd Philips’ Joker hit screens in 2019, the film was met with plenty of discourse. Its dark rendition of its titular character and Philips’ Scorsese-inspired approach was a knockout for some and nothing short of a farce for others. Not without its discourse, there is no denying that the film was a cultural moment that shifted many audiences' views towards what comic book movies could be; regardless of whether or not that rhetoric is worth buying into.
Five years later, the world has been through a rollercoaster of change. Between audiences shifting preferences when it comes to how they watch films, studios opting to put sequels on the big screen while they take original films straight to streaming and the global pandemic the world went through collectively, a lot has impacted what audiences expect from the films they choose to see.
When Todd Philips’ Joker sequel - subtitled Folie à Deux - was announced as a musical, there is no surprise that it set off alarm bells for some and sparked interest from others. The decision to follow up one of the highest grossing films of all time with a musical is one that is hard not to respect in the current era of studio sequels and interminable comic book movies that are becoming more and more difficult to discern from one another.
Folie à Deux takes place in an unspecified time after the events of the original film. Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as Arthur Fleck, seen here institutionalized in Arkham as he works with his lawyer to take his case to trial, in a claim that Joker is not the conscious person but rather another personality that revealed itself in the wake of Arthur’s disturbed past.
During his time at Arkham, Arthur meets Lady Gaga's Lee Quinzel, who audiences know to be Joker's partner in crime, Harley Quinn. An inmate who was sent to Arkham for burning her parents' apartment down, Lee takes an interest in Arthur and his Joker persona and makes it a point to become friendly with him, as they begin to share singing classes within the compound.
From here, audiences quickly become introduced to the film’s musical elements. With a mix of musical flare, whether it be in moments of characters breaking into song in response to a question or more heightened moments of dreamlike musical numbers, these elements don’t always blend seamlessly into the film.
As a means to express the characters' emotions during various moments, the musical numbers (mostly covers of pre-existing tunes) do serve a purpose here, however the way in which Philips’ implements them is hit and miss. In moments where Arthur is using a song to express his feelings to Lee over the phone, the music feels organic and emotionally driven. However, there are times when the music is used to take the audience inside Arthur’s psyche. These grand moments of song and dance, which look gorgeous - a sequence of Joker and Harley dancing on a moonlit rooftop comes to mind - occasionally feel out of place, as though they were stitched on rather than carefully implemented.
Both Phoenix and Gaga standout in the film's musical moments, however. Gaga is expectedly profound in her vocal talent and does a well enough job as the person who is to become the infamous Harley Quinn. Unfortunately though, the character of Lee occasionally feels underused, more often than not feeling like the outline of a character rather than a full fleshed out counterpart to Joker. Phoenix shines as Arthur, once again, bringing a new layer to the character with his big musical moments, which for the most part Phoenix performs quite well.
The musical elements of the film are surely to be divisive but where Folie à Deux is most interesting is in its lengthy courtroom drama components. Philips’ so easily could have fallen into the usual trappings that audiences have come to expect in comic book films of this style, playing into fan service with larger set pieces and easter eggs for audiences to fawn over. Instead, Philips uses Folie à Deux as a vehicle to subvert what is expected from comic book movies and seemingly make an effort to explore the recent popularity of true crime and its avid fans.
Using the Joker character and comic book movies as a means to explore the mythologising of criminals through the likes of true crime podcasts and films is a bold but welcome choice and, for the most part, Philips’ and co-writer Scott Silver do so in an intriguing way. Unfortunately, it often feels as though the pair were more ambitious in their ideas than they were cut out for. Occasionally, the film can feel disjointed between its various elements; either stylistically between musical numbers and straight faced courtroom sequences, or thematically between deconstructing its characters and its more conventional “movie moments”.
This disconnect at times allows the rather inflated runtime to feel dragged out, which leaves some of the film's ideas feeling a little lackluster in impact. However, as an almost ‘anti-comic book movie’, Folie à Deux is a far more intriguing work than one would have expected. Avoiding the trappings of studio pandering and calculated fan service, Philips’ and crew managed to deliver something that feels genuinely unique in the almost endless sea of the comic book genre.
While it doesn’t always succeed, Joker: Folie à Deux is likely to stand out to be judged on its own, much like its titular character. Whether it’s one that succeeds in its bold swing will be determined by what each audience member likes to glean from these outings, but at the end of it all Todd Philips did it his way and that is commendable in and of itself.