So the Joker has a girlfriend.

Given the events of the first film, we have to ask some questions.

First: Is it real?

And if she’s real, does she actually return his affections, or is this all a product of Arthur Fleck’s mind?

With “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which hits theaters on Friday, that’s no longer such a central question.

Others take his place.

While the French term in the title means a madness or delusion shared by two, the introduction of a Harleen “Lee” Quinzel – the film’s Harley Quinn, played by Lady Gaga – comes with the obvious acknowledgment of other characters in her story, like Arthur’s lawyer Maryanne Stewart, played by Oscar nominee Catherine Keener.

However, that doesn’t mean that everything that happens between Lee and Arthur happens in the Gotham that people can see.

In Todd Phillips’ sequel to “Joker” (2019), a long string of jukebox musical interludes draw on songs from the Great American Songbook, including other films and musicals. Some take place when Arthur is with other people. Others happen in the reality of his mind.

Arthur finds Lee – or actually Lee finds Arthur – in the place where he spends most of his time: Arkham State Hospital. (The former Essex County Isolation Hospital in Belleville plays the Gotham institution in the film.)

This is the reality of his life. He’s imprisoned there after killing five or six people, including the murder no one knows about: his mother… which he reminds us of throughout the film.

The first “Joker” to be nominated for best picture, it earned Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for best actor and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir the Oscar for best original score in 2020.

Phoenix is ​​once again one with the character of Arthur, but is Arthur one with himself? Was he ever?

In the 2019 film, we lived in Arthur’s head.

Now people like his lawyer and psychiatrist Dr. Louise Beatty (June Carryl), who is working on his trial, that Joker is a personality split off from him to deal with his trauma – that it was Joker who killed those people, not Arthur. Not the seemingly mild-mannered man they see before them…despite the fact that he clearly executed talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on live television in the first film.

This is a thread that is connected to the opening of the film.

“Joker: Folie à Deux” begins not with the dreary, gritty Arkham that dominates the rest of the film, but with the bright colors of an animated short. It is a “Me and My Shadow” story by French animator Sylvain Chomet (“The Triplets of Belleville”), which takes up the tradition of the “Joker” studio Warner Bros. own “Looney Tunes”. In the cartoon, Joker argues with Arthur and stuffs the man into a closet while the shadow self takes over.

As we leave the cartoon and are in full dreary Arkham mode, Arthur’s seemingly well-meaning lawyer and psychiatrist approaches him with her theory, the strategy Keener’s character uses to represent her client in court. But even Arthur looks skeptical or unmoved, as if saying, “I killed all those people – and one you don’t know about – and now you’re saying someone else did it?”

Lee was elated when he saw Arthur kill the talk show host. That’s what she tells him in Arkham, that she was waiting for him to blow Murray’s brains out – and then he does. She also tells him that she burned down her family’s home. Like many other people in Gotham, she saw the TV movie they made about Arthur (and insists it’s pretty good).

The two meet because Jackie Sullivan, an alternately cheerful and villainous Arkham security guard played by a memorable Brendan Gleeson (because when isn’t he memorable?), takes Arthur to a music class on a lower-security ward.

As soon as Arthur and Lee sing a song, a connection is created. Finally, we learn the true circumstances that brought her firestarter of a character to this place, making their little meeting as spontaneous as Arthur’s daily medicine routine in Arkham.

The romance between Arthur and Lee is characterized by songs such as “Get Happy”, “For Once in My Life”, “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, “The Joker” and “That’s Entertainment!” and many more. Both Gaga and Phoenix sing (even Gleeson sings a bit of “When the Saints Go Marching In”).

The film’s tagline: “The world is a stage.”

While much of the musical component is woven into the everyday scenes of Arkham, some are given a brilliant finish in Arthur’s mind, taking on the quality of a dream ballet on the moonlit roof of his imagination.

“Folie à Deux” accompanies us with a serenade through the gloom of Gotham and excellently underlines the slightly crazy quality that all musicals have when they translate their stories into songs and enjoy breaking with reality.

Another psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Liu (Ken Leung), who testifies as an expert during Arthur’s trial, believes he is playing the role of the Joker and committing the same mental illness that his lawyer believes should qualify him for transfer to a treatment facility outside of desolate Arkham . Liu says that while Arthur has other documented disorders, Joker is not the product of a split personality, but rather Arthur’s own narcissism and harmful behavior.

Even though Arthur keeps giving his lawyer unwanted kisses, she tries to help him. While wary of the onslaught of media just outside Arkham and the intrusion of Lee, she allows a television interview to be conducted in Arkham – so that Arthur can show the public a different side of him, which she believes is the ” Real “holds” him.

Of course, things are going as well as can be expected.

His entire existence is a spectacle, inside and outside of Arkham. Clown Joker supporters still roam the streets of Gotham. In the last film they seemed like a movement. We see less of them this time around, although Lee himself would certainly be considered some variation of the Joker faithful.

And although he is initially withdrawn, Arthur still performs – for his audience, for his fellow prisoners and yes, perhaps for himself. But for how long?

The first “Joker” was about becoming, and perhaps it had a simpler task.

This film jumps from song to song in a way that can be slippery, and in some ways reflects Arthur’s dwindling understanding of Joker and what he represents. The character enjoys a towering reputation that precedes the man and a mythology that obscures some crucial truths about Arthur, whose fate will be decided in court.

When he is not at the state hospital, he is transported to and from his trial.

The court scenes become exhausting and drag on so much that even at this moment it seems as if the trial is still taking place somewhere in some kind of purgatory – one that Arkham somehow surpasses in terms of punitive measures.

The trial brings together characters from the first film, including Sophie Dumond, the single mother Arthur was obsessed with in the first film, played by Zazie Beetz.

A prominent figure in these scenes is Leigh Gill, who plays another witness: Gary Puddles, a former colleague of Arthur’s who testifies about his brutal attack. They were once friends and Gary was good to Arthur, which is why he spared his life. But Arthur has traumatized him and he lets him know it on the witness stand.

It’s one of the few times we see a victim hold Arthur accountable and reveal the pain and hurt he caused when he took action against those who hurt him. Maybe that’s why it’s such a refreshing scene, a break from both the musical numbers playing out in Arthur’s head and his conversations with Lee, in which they treat his victims like a punchline.

Even outside of the musicals in his head, Lee manages to be almost everywhere Arthur is, making it hard to believe at times that she’s actually there.

Lady Gaga’s presence is also undeniable, and in variety shows and “Sonny & Cher”-inspired numbers she is a real relief, providing some respite from the mostly paralyzing courtroom scenes.

Yes, Joaquin Phoenix – we’ll see you tap dancing there too. But it’s Gaga who shines in the scenes that inevitably play to her musical strengths, flexing her jazz and pop muscles to put on a real show.

You can’t help but see her more often in the film, whether as Lee in Arthur’s mind or as Lee showing up in court demanding a better place.

“Joker: Folie à Deux“, rated R, runs 2 hours and 18 minutes and begins in theater Friday, October 4th.