Film Review - Joker Folie a Deux (2024)

Joker Folie a Deux is the sequel to the 2019 Joker film which won Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck aka The Joker and he along with Director Todd Phillips return for this sequel which takes place 2 years after the events of the first film and Arthur has been in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial for his crimes from the end of the first film, during a music class one day he meets Lee (Lady Gaga) another inmate and the two fall in love.

Joker Folie a Deux is going to join some bad company, that being Highlander 2 and Wonder Woman 1984 in terms of being a direct sequel to a popular first film and the same creative team returns for a sequel and completely cocks it up in almost every way, with Highlander 2 it was leaning into Science Fiction with not only the Shield around the world but also changing the immortals origins to being from the now infamous Planet Zeist and with Wonder Woman 1984 it was coming up with a story that made no sense, leaned into bad archetypes and created a central hook in the wishing stone that failed to have any proper framework or rules around it unlike the Genie of the Lamp or the Seven Magic Dragon Balls.

In the case of Joker Folie a Deux it is trying to do 2 distinctly separate movies and failing miserably at both, it wants to be a dreary courtroom drama as well as a stylish romantic musical and neither is given the focus and clarity of storytelling they deserve, the courtroom and prison moments are dull to sit through and the musical moments just had me going “What the Fuck” in my cinema seat and I even saw 2 people walk out of my session during the film (and there was only 6 of us there.)

And what makes this split focus feel worse is that it turns Arthur into a bystander IN HIS OWN MOVIE, Phoenix is a great actor and rarely has he let you down but here he does so as all he does is sit around in a prison, sit around in a courtroom and then give a coutroom speech that feels anti climatic and again PHOENIX WON AN OSCAR PLAYING THIS ROLE, good grief.

As for Lady Gaga I love her, I think she is a wonderful talent and seems to have this big kind heart and soul inside her but she is wasted here, all she does for the most part is sit around in prison clothes and later clown makeup and do a few cabaret acts in the musical scenes and what makes THIS feel worse is that Harley Quinn/Dr Harlene Quinzel is a great character born out of Bruce Timm and his team when they ran the DC animation division and the storyline Mad Love which was later adapted into the Batman Animated Series is a fantastic story.

But once again like the 2016 Suicide Squad film this relationship which is at its core an abusive one is sanewashed and it is fucking irritating as that character goes to Arkham specifically because she is attracted to the glamour of Gotham’s super criminals even though she is warned to be wary of them as they will mess with her head which happens due to the Joker’s influence on her but there is very little of that in this movie in any meaningful fashion but then again Warner Brothers once again finds a way to fuck things up in regards to DC on film and this is far far far from the first time that’s happened too.

Speaking of Warner Brothers fucking things up in a way that pisses me off, the first film in 2019 was co-made with Village Roadshow Pictures and like Furiosa from earlier this year there is no mention at all of Village Roadshow’s involvement with this sequel even though (again like Furiosa) there are webpages listing them involved and that for me personally is deeply disappointing because the partnership between Warner Brothers and Roadshow here in Australia goes back decades and watching WB part ways with them to sign a new distribution deal here in Australia with Universal at the end of 2020 is one I’ve come to hate more and more and its why I don’t get as surprised that WB has thrown away completed movies like they recently have because if they can throw away a 50 year distribution partnership then anything can be tossed aside in their eyes.

Okay that little tangent aside there is the bones of a good movie here and it was one where Gaga did get to play Dr. Quinzel culminating with Arthur in the witness stand answering for himself and his crimes from the first film and really interrogating why that first film worked for many and didn’t for others but we didn’t get that here really at all.

And so that is Joker Folie a Deux and like Highlander II and Wonder Woman 1984 is a sign of a complete cock up by a creative team that got it right the first time around and got it all wrong the second time around, honestly don’t bother seeing this movie, watch some of the DC animation shows instead, if only WB had recruited Bruce Timm from the start of all this in 2013, things could’ve been very different, .5 out of 5.