Joker: Folie a Deux

When "Joker" was released back in 2019, with all that's happened in this world, it seems like an eternity ago. Certainly Todd Phillips brought us a complicated and delineated version of Joker that was very effective. However, with this follow up, we have "Joker: Folie a Deux" that gives us a musical slant to a story that clearly doesn't scream musical. 

This follow up to "Joker" finds Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes--murders as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love--another patient there, Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) who later becomes Harley Quinn, he also finds the music that's always been inside him. Arthur continues to have graphic dreams that accentuates his dual identity issues which between that and Quinn's bad influence only causes Joker to become stronger. 

Others to round out the cast are Brendon Gleeson as Jackie Sullivan, Catherine Keener as Maryanne Stewart, Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond, Steve Coogan as Paddy Meyers, Harry Lawtey as Harvey Dent, Leigh Gill as Gary Puddles, Ken Leung as Dr. Victor Lui, Bill Smitrovich as Judge Herman Rothwax, Jacob Lofland as Ricky Meline and Sharon Washington as Debra. 

This was directed with the intensity and grit as the original by Todd Phillips ("Road Trip" 2000, "Old School" '03, "Starsky & Hutch" '04, "School for Scoundrels" '06, "The Hangover" '09, "Due Date" '10, "The Hangover Part II" '11, "War Dogs" '16, "Joker" '19) plus other films, a TV movie and a video. As with the original, Phillips was able to extract the intense emotions, especially that of Phoenix, in order to convince the audience that these characters have been delineated precisely. He has a tendency to direct with a somewhat dark style, but this certainly can make him stand out that much more. It was interestingly written by Scott Silver ("Johns" '96, "The Mod Squad" '99, "8 Mile" '02, "The Fighter" '10, "The Finest Hours" '16, "Joker" '19) and Todd Phillips ("Road Trip" 2000, "Borat" (story) '06, "Due Date" '10, "The Hangover Part II" '11, "War Dogs" '16) plus other films, a TV movie and video, based on the DC comics. Where "Joker" excelled with its screenplay, this film fell short. First of all, the original wasn't a musical--for a reason, but this film was, simply missed the mark, and secondly there were too many places where it became confusing where the dreams ended and real life took over and visa versa. Both of these writers are seasoned--Phillips and Silver wrote the original, however I'm not sure what happened--bad day at the laptop? And Lady Gaga shouldn't have been cast as Harley Quinn--someone like Margot Robbie would've been a better choice. Maybe Robbie was involved in another project or maybe not interested, but this needed another choice. Was it a wash? Certainly not--the acting by Phoenix was amazing as was the directing and the photography by Lawrence Sher asc. 

If you must see this, it truly needs to be on the large screen for the grandiose effect--it's even presented in an IMAX format, but be prepared for a musical, albeit in dream sequences, but a musical and a script that is not cohesive and concise. 

Out of 4 Stars: 1.5                                     Rated: R                                            138mins.