Oh boy. This has not happened in a long time. The urge to write an entire review as soon as I left the movie theater. I just need to talk about the movie I just saw.
Before we get started, let me point out two things that are quite important to my thoughts on this film:
- I do not like the first Joker film
- I do love me a good musical
This alone seems to differ my reaction to the majority of those that I have seen dissatisfied with Joker: Folie à Deux. With an (as of this writing), 33% Rotten Tomatoes score, 34% audience score on the same site, and an absurdly low D CinemaScore, it is clear that this film is already more divisive than it’s already divisive original film. To me, a large majority of this backlash from the general audience seems related to the fact that this film is a musical. Either they liked the first film and did not like that this was a musical, or simply did not know that it was just that. The marketing continued trends that we’ve studios use for the likes of Wonka and Mean Girls (2024), essentially hiding the fact that these were musicals in the film’s trailers. Studios will make musicals, but are seemingly afraid to promote them as such. This is one of many astoundingly bad decisions studios have made in recent years that are damaging the film industry, but I understand being taken aback if you only saw the trailers, go into a movie after enjoying the original film, and all of a sudden the characters start singing. This needs to be corrected by the studios, and fast. It’s doing their films more harm than good, cause this is not the first time a film has received a similar response due to the blatant misleading studio marketing.
I say this all to show my immediate reactions and emotions may differ from how the general audiences have reacted to Folie à Deux. The first Joker film, which won Joaquin Phoenix a Best Actor Oscar, was a film that I enjoyed at first, but knew I would likely never revisit it again due to its content. Over time, I have grown to dislike the film. I think the performances and especially the score are tremendously haunting, and there are quite a few standout scenes that still impact me to this day, but I have grown to hate what this movie thinks it is. It’s the kind of movie that thinks it’s smarter than it actually is, or is conveying some deep-rooted message that only certain few will understand. It also represents a trend I thought died long ago, which is comic-book movies that are embarrassed to be comic-book movies, feeling the need to make everything “darker” or “grounded in realism” to an eye-rolling extent. The need to change just about everything we know about these characters reminds me of how early comic-book films would treat their characters, something I thought we have left in the past, but Todd Phillips and co. keep that trend going with these Joker films. In a year where Deadpool and Wolverine both celebrated being a comic-book movie and poked fun at the past tropes that I just discussed that the X-Men movies were guilty of for the better part of two decades, these just feel like comic-book movies made for college kids who get the wrong message from American Psycho, Fight Club, or The Boys. I recognize that Joker is a well-made film, but it is not a favorite of mine.
Would Folie à Deux change my perception of the original? Would it improve on a story that captivated many half a decade ago?
*Sigh*
I’ll just say it: this film is a total mess. This movie at points does things better than the first: the highs of this screenplay I feel exceed the first, there are many more standout performances, and the score is once again bone-chillingly good. If Hildur Guðnadóttir earns another Oscar nomination for her score, I will not complain in the slightest. It remains to me the best part of both these films. Easily. My enjoyment level of this movie came in phases. I thought the movie started out terribly. Around the 30 second mark I found myself saying I already hated it. As things pick up, and we delve further into the relationship between Arthur and Lee, I got more into it, and liked it on par with, or more than what the first film did really well. Then, the last 40 minutes to an hour just completely fell apart, with an ending that straight up shot the movie dead on sight. I haven’t seen a movie fall this flat on its face in quite some time.
To nobody’s shock, the acting throughout is very good. Joaquin Phoenix is again in his element (if a bit much at points) as Arthur Fleck, Brendan Gleason is tremendous (shocker, I know) as an abusive prison warden, and Lady Gaga’s performance was very good. However, and I feel like the worst kind of fan saying this, so I apologize, but she was not Harley Quinn. If you’re expecting the Harley Quinn character you know from, well, just about anything you’ve ever known her from, this is not her. She’s Harley in name only, even then only called “Lee” for the majority of the film. Anything you knew about the Joker-Harley dynamic, yeah that’s out the window. Both characters are written entirely differently, and again it just felt like comic-book films changing characters for the need to be “dark” or “realistic” that I thought we moved past in the 2000s, but it’s a fucking Joker musical, you can afford to have Harley Quinn in this movie. Gaga deserves praise for excelling in the role when given the opportunity to, I just want to see the alternate universe where we got a batshit, bizarre Joker musical akin to the comics with both these actors leaning into those characters, instead of what we ended up with.
Now for the songs. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but this is in fact a musical. The musical numbers will be a point of contention, but for me it’s how they’re incorporated that was my major issue with this movie. I didn’t hate the musical numbers, I hated how they were placed in the film. This falls entirely on the direction and editing. To me, watching the film, it felt like they shot the musical numbers first, then had to figure out afterwards where they fit in the movie. This leads to stilted pacing, editing, and is a big example of characters just “randomly singing” that is a problem many non-fans of musicals cannot get past. This was a courtroom thriller that felt like it was turned into a musical in post, it didn’t have the story of a musical. Even though Todd Phillips and Warner Bros. announced this as a musical film from the beginning, it comes off as a director wanting to make a courtroom drama, but was told months into production to add some songs. You could’ve done something interesting with this concept, and they just didn’t. The tone is all over the place. Some numbers take place in Arthur’s fantasy inside his mind, some seemingly happen in real-time. So some songs aren’t actually happening, but some are. This script just did not fit that of a musical. On another note, it irritates me that the majority of the singing here is that weird speak/whisper singing. You have Lady Fucking Gaga as your co-lead and she really only gets to truly sing maybe three times here. There’s your main selling point out the damn window. It all feels off.
The film’s ending though is in a league of its own. Even with all my issues, had this film not ended the way it did, I probably would’ve just found it average, but it just makes the bad of the movie so much worse to where despite the several things this movie does right, i just can’t call this a good film. I may have to do a separate spoiler post discussing the ending because I am just so taken aback by how they felt this was a good way to end this story. This is recency bias talking, but I think this is easily the worst ending to a film I have seen this decade. With the way this movie played out the way it did, the arc these characters went on, they ended it that way?!!! Come the fuck on! When the screen cut to black and the credits rolled, I was pissed off. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know what I’m talking about. There were more effective ways to have a similar ending but have it be more rewarding for the overall story, but they just went with a total wet fart to end Todd Phillips’ take on The Joker. I’m still just completely baffled.
To me, Joker: Folie à Deux felt like a misfire from Todd Phillips. It doesn’t have the sharpness behind the camera that the first Joker did, despite my issues with it. I admire Phillips and DC for taking some risks, going against the grain with its storytelling and presentation, but for me, these risks just simply didn’t pay off, and my main issue is in it’s direction, pacing, and editing. I don’t think it’s as bad as I’m seeing some people say, as I said I think a large portion of that comes from the backlash of the marketing disguising the fact this is a musical from the general audience. However, even the good that is present here does not make up for what is an overall messy misfire of a final product.
The Starlight Film Journal is a passion project of mine focusing on my one true love – talking about movies. Thank you for your patience as I have spent the last few months away from this blog. I plan on playing catch up soon and putting my Film Journals together for the months I missed. If you are interested in more of my thoughts on movies, I journal every film I watch on my Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd and would love it if you joined the fun!
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