No matter one considered Todd Phillips‘s Joker, it earned its share of acclaim and accolades, and nabbed Joaquin Phoenix a Greatest Actor Oscar. Whether or not it bore too shut of a resemblance to sure Martin Scorsese movies, or appeared to empathize an excessive amount of with reckless violence as the answer to societal points, it was a minimum of a considerably completely different tackle a comic book ebook character. And Phoenix’s deranged efficiency and transformation from Arthur Fleck to Joker was fascinating.
It’s a movie that didn’t really want a sequel, but even this seeming one-off tackle the Joker wound up with one. Not less than it tries to take care of a streak of originality by touting itself as a musical and bringing within the abilities of Girl Gaga as famed lackey/romantic curiosity of Joker, Harley Quinn. This could have been sufficient to maintain the spark alive.
But Joker: Folie a Deux is a mediocre work, regardless of some attention-grabbing concepts. The script is overstuffed with plot factors and has a meandering sense of focus. It spends half of the movie inside Arkham Asylum as Phoenix’s Arthur appears to pivot between embracing his Joker id and simply desirous to be completed with every part. He’s a reluctant celeb for his crimes and considerably charms the Arkham guards, however he’s additionally bullied by his fellow inmates. It’s an try at creating duality, nevertheless it comes throughout as unfocused and unclear on what it desires to be.
Whereas Phoenix remains to be strong, he doesn’t appear fairly as absolutely invested within the position this time. The brand new (for this sub-universe) character of Quinn makes an attempt to have a duality as nicely, however has poor execution. The movie teases a plot level of Quinn stealing the present from Joker and his emotions of jealousy, however that is then deserted with no concrete decision. Ultimately, the film pivots to being a courtroom drama, as Joker is tried for his crimes from the primary movie, however this angle shouldn’t be all that fascinating both. We get a brand new tackle Harvey Dent as a younger, cocksure assistant district legal professional who’s extra entitled punk than noble public servant, however that is too minor to matter.
In keeping with the movie’s total half-baked strategy is the musical side, executed with a thud. The movie isn’t actually a musical, and to be honest, Phillips had admitted interviews that it isn’t a musical within the true sense. Maybe the studio interfered. Both manner, the remnants of the musical side are totally disappointing. The movie by no means really embraces the surrealism inherent in musicals or goes for these bombastic sequences which may have benefited bigger than life characters resembling Joker. As a substitute, the scenes are largely Gaga and Phoenix singing deliberately unhealthy variations (Phillips requested them to sing poorly!) of Sinatra and different showtune fashion songs. The characters are actually singing within the context of the scenes, and this literalism prevents the scenes from hovering the best way they may. Unsurprisingly, the scenes that do minimize away from actuality are the higher ones, however these are too few and much between.
Joker: Folie a Deux is a movie that struggles with what it desires to be. Brendan Gleeson is delightfully excessive as a Irish Arkham guard, enjoying up the Irish cop stereotype to hilarious extremes. The movie additionally has a last message that appears to criticize sure components of the primary movie’s fanbase and has a surprising ending within the wider context of franchise movies, even when the script finally ends up telegraphing the place it’s going within the third act. Had the previous two hours been well-written and executed, this last act might need been really glorious.
As a substitute, Phoenix’s rendition of the character involves a seeming finish with a uninteresting stumble. Whereas nowhere as unhealthy as some critiques appear to be suggesting, Joker: Folie a Deux feels just like the viewers has been fooled. It’s every part and nothing suddenly, and is a sleep to observe. Regardless of the flaws of the primary movie, it did have components that saved you locked in. This simply leaves you wanting.
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