Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie à Deux takes place two years after the events of Joker (2019) and follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) who is now a patient at Arkham State Hospital and has fallen in love with fellow inmate Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga). As the two experience life as a musical through their linked insanity, Arthur’s followers start a movement to liberate him.
The first Joker film was surprisingly phenomenal despite initial doubts from many people, including myself. It was a beautifully crafted yet unsettling and highly relevant character study that adapted one of the most iconic DC villains in a unique way that both respected elements of various source material and added creative new elements of its own. It also had one of the best endings of a comic book film, one that was extremely fitting for the character as it was full of immense ambiguity, and firmly established at the time that this was a film that needed no sequel. Five years later we end up with a sequel that came very much out of nowhere when it was first announced, and for me personally it felt highly unnecessary. But given that I was proven wrong with my initial thoughts of the first film prior to its release I was fully willing to give this sequel a fair chance. I got to see it at a special early screening last night and I unfortunately ended up walking out majorly disappointed by the end result.
Joker Folie à Deux is an ambitious sequel that had some great things going for it that could have put it on par with its predecessor but instead felt like an immense waste of talent, time, and effort. So many awesome ideas and creative swings built up only for it all to become pointless by terrible narrative decisions in the second half of the film that make this sequel completely unnecessary.
I wanted to like or even love this film and there was a lot I was enjoying about it until it crashed and burned by the end like one of Arthur’s bad jokes. The film had a number of positive elements going for it, including the performances and the technical elements, which are unfortunately dragged down by its poorly executed narrative and poor direction choices, which include its handling of character development and themes.
Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal as Arthur/Joker in the first film and he was once again incredible here, but sadly he doesn’t get to evolve beyond what he was in the first film, aside from getting the opportunity to showcase an immense talent for singing. What could have been a deeper venture into the character’s psyche through Phoenix’s performance sadly goes nowhere new or interesting in the second half of the film despite an investing build-up in the first half. We were promised an evolution of the character in this sequel that never came and despite an amazing effort by Phoenix, it felt like a shadow of the absolutely amazing version of the character we had in the first film.
Lady Gaga does her very best as this fairly new and grounded take on Harley Quinn, but unfortunately she is highly underused and only felt significant in the musical portions of the film, rather than being an integral part of it as promised by the director and advertising. It honestly feels like she was just brought in to get butts in seats rather than to play the role of a character because she gets extremely little development throughout the film and barely adds much to it, aside from getting Arthur to bounce back as Joker and giving this film a soundtrack. The two had only brief sparks of chemistry littered throughout the film that could have been explored and fleshed out further in unique and interesting ways but they never get that chance.
There is a supporting cast of very talented cast members who do a great job with their respective roles, but much like the leads don’t end up going anywhere despite promising payoffs with some of them. Brendan Gleeson plays an abusive guard at Arkham State Hospital who felt like he was going to get the ultimate karma in the film, similar to one of Arthur’s victims in the previous film, but that never happens despite so much build-up. The same goes for Harry Lawtey as this world’s version of Harvey Dent, who you’d think would have an explosive conflict with Arthur during his trial but that never happens.
There’s a lot of setup and no payoff with these characters despite the cast putting forth their best effort, and that can also be applied to the film’s narrative where there feels like so much build-up was created through unsettling tension, and yet there ends up being no major payoffs. The first film had slow burn pacing that had viewers join Arthur on his disturbing journey to madness that ends on an explosive and satisfying note that made all the build-up worth it, while in this film the slow burn pacing felt pointless as it never leads to anything of value.
Additionally, the various themes this film attempts to explore never seem to go anywhere, which I found incredibly disappointing given how excellent the themes of the first film were explored in such a unique manner. There was also very little ambiguity throughout the film whereas the first film truly made you question if everything you witnessed was real or all imagined by Arthur as a result of his insanity.
There were lots of potentially great ideas featured in this narrative along with some creative swings and blending of various genres that if handled properly from start to end would have made for an amazing Joker sequel. But all of it gets completely ruined by numerous poor choices in the second half of this film including the ending, which has to be one of the worst and most unearned endings I’ve seen in a comic book film since The Flash. The film’s extremely uneven and botched narrative as a whole makes this film feel like an unnecessary continuation of an otherwise perfect standalone story and wastes the immense technical effort that was made for this film.
It looks visually gorgeous thanks to amazing practical sets, phenomenal cinematography, wonderful costume designs, and makeup that are just too perfect to be paired with a terrible narrative. The same can be said for the music with composer Hildur Guðnadóttir once again delivering a fantastic and haunting score for this film. The musical segments are all very well done making for some of the most visually and audibly pleasing parts of the film.
This sequel had every opportunity to be on par or possibly be better than its predecessor but it failed to do so and as a result, feels like a hollow and unnecessary sequel that I think will upset many people, especially those who truly loved the first film. This film is one of the biggest disappointments of 2024 for me personally and that hurts to say because I really wanted this to be good. I’m going to give Joker: Folie à Deux a D = 65.
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