Joker: Folie à Deux
Still in the 1970’s and imprisoned at Arkham Asylum, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) awaits his trial for his crimes as Joker. But, when a chance encounter with Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a fellow patient and fan, stirs up new emotions, Arthur finds himself conflicted in his duality of self, Joker and Arthur. Sometimes all it takes is just a little push to send things into motion, and all the world’s a stage. Will Arthur get what he wants, what he deserves, or both?
Written by Scott Silver, Todd Phillips, and Bob Kane, this terrestrially bound continuation of Joker (2019) moves at a glacial tilt occasionally shifting to inner dialogue set-pieces based in 1970’s golden era song lyrics, which admittedly is stylistically more colorful and interesting, Phoenix’s physical movement is haunting as Joker and Gaga’s voice soars, but the end result isn’t enough to lift this drawn out and mundane pseudo-romance. Moment’s of dark humor do illicit a chuckle or two throughout, but for fans of the psychopathic criminal mastermind, the search continues, alas, we’re left with just a sad clown. In totality, for all of the non-action throughout, the real narrative boils down to the last 30 seconds of the film, which is to say, this parallel universe/D.C. universe feels too close to boring to be interesting, almost like the way A.I. models create lifelike images based on comics, sometimes fun and interesting for a moment, but in actuality void of the spirit and reason we love their true construct, for escapism and the impossible, of which we only get measured doses of here. Running two hours and eighteen minutes Joker: Folie à Deux is rated R.