Joker: Folie á Deux Review: A Shattering Disappointment

In 2019, Todd Phillips pushed the limits of comic book adaptations with Joker, a mature character study inspired by Martin Scorsese’s work in Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. This controversial film garnered significant recognition, including an Academy Award for Joaquin Phoenix as the titular lead. The picture’s ambiguous ending would have sealed a beautiful standalone entry in an oversaturated market of cinematic universes.

But any movie that grosses over $1 billion at the box office needs a sequel. And — really — who better to make a sequel than the man who made The Hangover Part II and III? Surely, nothing could go wrong here. I present to you Joker: Folie á Deux.

How do you follow that first movie? Phillips takes a big swing here by making this into a musical. Unfortunately, he forgot to make it into a good one. Music sensation Lady Gaga has had a superb acting career lately in A Star is Born and House of Gucci, and she’s a genius casting choice for Harleen “Lee” Quinn. While this movie’s depiction differs from Margot Robbie’s interpretation or anything from the cartoons, Gaga has a lot of screen presence as this character. Phoenix got an Oscar for his work as Arthur Fleck the first time, and while he won’t be taking home the gold this time, his performance feels like an excellent continuation of the first movie.

But Joker: Folie á Deux is the rare movie that genuinely feels like it was made for nobody. The first Joker’s target demographic is generally not musical lovers. Musical lovers and Gaga fans may show up to this film only to be horrified by how poor the music is. Phoenix is no singer and doesn’t always keep up with Gaga’s talent. At first, it’s a fascinating choice because Arthur first sees Lee when she sings, so he sings to communicate with her. An early dance number is excellent because it starts as this twisted whirlwind romance featuring two psychopaths who are perfect for each other.

But the musical choice is a risk that doesn’t pay off for me. The first film was a very grounded character study, so it’s a significant departure to have this movie go full-fledged fantastical musical. If the music were excellent, I wouldn’t mind. But after a while, many musical numbers add nothing to the story. They mainly happen in fantasy sequences in Joker’s mind, and each musical number disrupts the story’s pacing. They don’t advance the plot because they’re essentially extended dream sequences.

Glimpsing into Arthur’s mind worked in the first movie, because we were misled into believing he had a girlfriend. When the rug is pulled out from underneath us, and we see it was a fantasy, we feel the betrayal of his mind. But since we know that all the musical sequences are in his head, it feels like filler. Nothing new is discovered during these scenes, and they’re not entertaining enough to be enjoyable. The song choices work occasionally, but they’re hit or miss. They’re acceptable when you watch them, but they don’t leave enough impact.

Joker: Folie á Deux is a one-part musical, one-part courtroom drama. The courtroom drama stuff is surprisingly dull. There are no rousing court scenes because these scenes are primarily characters recapping the first film’s events. We already saw the first movie, so we don’t need to be reminded of what happened in that movie. It gets painful because this sequel chooses to revel in the events of the first movie instead of creating a new story. As a result, this film lacks any momentum. We are trapped in a courtroom with almost no new information being given to us.

One of the most absurd things about this film is that the production budget is $200 million, a considerable step up from the original’s $55-70 million budget. This movie feels smaller in scale than the first. Most of the film is set in two locations: the courtroom and the prison. Brendan Gleeson appears as a prison guard, but it doesn’t feel like his character matters much by the end.

Speaking of unimportant characters, Lee feels surprisingly unnecessary. The main storyline surrounds Arthur’s trial for the murders he committed in the first movie, but Lee’s presence has no bearing on this narrative.

Lee exists solely as a motivator for Arthur. She makes Arthur feel seen. But Arthur’s goal in the movie is to be free, and Lee does not change that very much. He strives towards the dream of running away with Lee, but this motivation feels weak. It doesn’t feel like anything of consequence happens until the final act. Even the rich themes of the first film (mental health and class) get drowned out by the long musical numbers. All we have are faint echoes of what the original movie wanted to scream. At some point, you just want the characters to stop singing and do something impactful. Joker: Folie á Deux gets there in its final moments, but it’s too little, too late.