Monday, October 14, 2024

Joker: Folie a Deux. A Review

 


JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX

Maybe it is true that you can't go home again. After scoring a critical and popular triumph with Joker, director Todd Philips and star Joaquin Phoenix reunite with Joker: Folie a Deux. This is not a cash grab from a popular film. This is not the newest part of the saga for the Clown Prince of Crime. This is an absolute abomination, perhaps the worst film of the year. At minimum, Joker: Folie a Deux is a film that delights in hating its audience. 

Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is awaiting his trial for committing five murders, including that of television host Murray Franklin on live television. Currently at Arkham Asylum, Fleck is seemingly meek and broken. His attorney Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) will push an insanity defense where Fleck is a split personality. There is Arthur Fleck, troubled man, and then there is his alter ego of "Joker", criminal mastermind. It was Joker, not Arthur, who killed.

While at Arkham, he makes the friendship of Lee (Lady Gaga), who is infatuated with Arthur ever since she saw a television movie about him. She tries to help him escape but they are caught, and he is thrown into solitary. Nevertheless, Lee manages to get to his cell for a one-night stand. She also stands by him after her release from prison, where she is one of Fleck/Joker's eager fans attending the trial of the century.  

At his trial, Fleck finds himself facing off against Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), who has a strong case against Fleck. Fleck shocks the court by first firing Stewart and representing himself, then by appearing in full Joker makeup and wardrobe. He earns the ire of the Arkham guards, including his frenemy Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson). The testimonies are devastating to Fleck's case, but he is not worried. He's got Lee Quinzel on his side. He still loses, especially after his closing arguments are that he is guilty. 

He still has fans, however, willing to bust him out with a car bomb. He also still has enemies, who will sexually assault and break him. He does not have Lee, who has abandoned him and faked her whole life story. Will Arthur Fleck find redemption or damnation at the end?

One of the biggest issues with Joker: Folie a Deux from viewers is that the film is a musical. More than one person has told me that they were shocked to find that Joker: Folie a Deux has musical numbers. I am somewhat surprised that people walked into the film unaware that Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga would perform song-and-dance routines. It was not a secret, though judging from audience reaction, it was not emphasized either. 

On that level, Joker: Folie a Deux is an absolute failure. A good music, even one that uses previously written pop standards like That's Life or For Once in My Life, will use them to express character moods or move the plot forward. This film does neither. I could get the argument that For Once in My Life does express Fleck's rediscovered joy through Lee Quinzel (the name Harlequin is never used). 

However, you cannot have it both ways. The musical numbers veer from Fleck's fantasies (such as when he and Lee perform To Love Somebody and Gonna Build a Mountain) to real-life (such as the aforementioned For Once in My Life and If My Friends Could See Me Now during their attempted escape). I could have accepted the use of The Joker when Fleck fantasizes about killing the jurors and judge. However, that is not what Joker: Folie a Deux did.

I am not sure if even the film knew what it wanted to do with the musical numbers. The one takeaway that I got from the musical numbers is one of contempt for the audience. As Phoenix gleefully tap dances while Gaga covers Gonna Build a Mountain, all I could think was that everyone involved in Joker: Folie a Deux are all laughing at the audience. I felt that the people behind the film simply hated the people who liked the first film and wanted to ridicule them. In a certain sense, they treated the audience how Gotham treated Arthur before he lost all grip of reality. 

The split in Joker: Folie a Deux can be best summarized when Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill) returns from the first film to give testimony. Gill is playing this extremely straight, delving back into Puddles' deep emotional trauma of seeing a man murdered in front of him but being spared by his then-friend Arthur because Puddles was the only person to show Fleck any kindness. This shows a strong, dramatic, even emotional situation. 

On one side, there is the drama. On the other, you have Phoenix, careening between a Southern accent even Daniel Craig would say was cartoonish and a Cockney accent going on about how he could not believe the witness' name was "Puddles". Yes, Joker might not take things seriously. However, you have one character taking this extremely seriously, the other not. The split between them reveals how tonally unbalanced Joker: Folie a Deux is. We are watching a film at war with itself, attempting to be clever, perhaps even daring by having musical numbers but also wanting to say something. No one is quite sure what it wanted to say, but it took a long time in saying nothing.

One last part on the musical numbers. I can cut Joker: Folie a Deux some slack as I do not think Arthur Fleck was meant to be a singer. However, why give a non-singer like Joaquin Phoenix so many songs? Moreover, why have Lady Gaga there if all she is going to do is do admittedly good covers?

It is surprising how unorganized Joker: Folie a Deux is. Lady Gaga's character seemed so unnecessary to the overall story. We can't even say that the character was there for name recognition, as again the name "Harlequin" was never used, and she was always called "Lee" versus the more familiar "Harleen". Keener, one of our best actresses, was not only underused in the film, but dismissed once Fleck decided to represent himself. Steve Coogan has one scene as a tabloid interviewer, but again this was unnecessary.

In fact, the first thirty minutes of this two-hour-eighteen-minute film could have been removed altogether. From the opening animated sequence through the first meeting with Lee, it felt as if things were dragging, waiting for the story to begin. You had the repeated appearance of Ricky (Jacob Lofland), a timid young man who seemed to have a romantic yearning for Arthur. He first comes up to Fleck and tells him that the guards told him that Fleck is a good kisser, and since Ricky has never been kissed, he shyly asks for one. It is so random and bizarre, with no rhyme or reason. The same goes for the various songs the film uses, there being no blending of how the musical numbers flow into or out of the film.

The ending, where Arthur Fleck is knifed and dies, is also seemingly random. Fleck's killer, billed as "Young Inmate" (Connor Storie) is seen once, maybe twice, in the background. That they offered to not give him a name shows one of two things. Either the theories that Arthur Fleck is not THE Joker are true, or the film just wanted to give one "shocking" twist that was not. Nothing in Joker: Folie a Deux lands with the shock or horror or pathos they thought audiences would get.

Perhaps grudging respect can be given that the prison shower rape scene Arthur goes through at the hands of the guards is nowhere near graphic. However, it does not have any emotional impact. Joker's fantasies about going on a court-filled murderous spree or the car bomb that lets Arthur escape (and has a blink-and-you-miss it suggestion that this is when Harvey Dent starts shifting into Two-Face) does not either. 

The performances are fine. Gill is a standout in his brief moment as Gary Puddles, about the only one showing what Joker: Folie a Deux could have been if it had abandoned the notion of being a musical. Phoenix is fine, not great but fine. Same for Gaga, who did what she could and had good musical moments. 

Joker: Folie a Deux is a terrible, terrible film. It has nothing of redeeming value. It is a total waste of time and effort. It is pointless. If I am honest with myself, it may be worse than Argylle

DECISION: F

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