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    • The sequel to the sad clown is nonsense
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    The sequel to the sad clown is nonsense

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

    Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga cannot start the sequel to the acclaimed 2019 hit.

    Adam Graham
    | Detroit News film critic

    It takes an extremely generous reading to get anything of value out of Joker: Folie à Deux, 2019’s tepid musical sequel to the famous Batman villain’s transgressive origin story.

    While the original film used the Joker story as a starting point to hold up a mirror to a decaying society and its treatment of mental illness, “Folie à Deux” first spins its wheels and struggles to connect with something bigger than itself. It’s a dark, good-looking and well-acted film that just doesn’t have much to say, which isn’t the worst thing, but it’s well below its predecessor’s high mark.

    Joaquin Phoenix is ​​back in the role that won him a Best Actor Oscar as Arthur Fleck, the street clown who went on a killing spree and is now imprisoned in Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum. There he is constantly poked at by the prison guards – including Brendan Gleeson as lead guard Jackie Sullivan – who taunt and taunt him, asking: “Do you have a joke for us today?”

    The deadly gaunt Arthur awaits trial for his crimes, and Catherine Keener is his lawyer, Maryanne Stewart, who defends that Fleck has a split personality and that it was his shadow self that committed the heinous crimes. (Arthur is charged with five murders, although he is quick to point out that he actually killed his mother as well, bringing his body count to six.) Arthur himself is somewhat left out of the proceedings of his own trial, for which he is given the There is a threat of death because he has something else on his mind: love.

    Arthur falls in love with Lee Quinzel, played by Lady Gaga, a patient at Arkham Asylum who claims to be a Joker superfan, having seen the TV movie about Arthur’s exploits many times. (Arthur himself wasn’t allowed to see the film, but is very particular about its quality.) Lee puts a song in Arthur’s heart and together they sing a series of pop standards – “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” (They Long Be Near You “, “This is entertainment!” – sometimes together, sometimes in fantasy sequences that take place in Arthur’s head.

    The musical set pieces distract from the fact that there isn’t much going on in the film. Arthur sings Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life” while in a prison break room with his fellow inmates, and Phoenix does his best, expressing Arthur’s inner feelings in a physical performance of song and dance. But it’s all in his head, and the sequence does nothing to advance a story that’s hopelessly stuck in one place.

    At one point, Arthur and Lee appear together as hosts of a “Sonny & Cher”-style variety show – again, another fantasy sequence that further reinforces what we already know about Arthur’s state of mind, as window dressing for an empty household .

    While “Folie à Deux” is never boring to watch – credit to production designer Mark Friedberg and cinematographer Lawrence Sher – it’s unclear what it is or wants to be, and the nagging feeling is that it’s a film made for was made to no one.

    “Batman” fans who were drawn into the lore of the first film because it connected to the larger “Batman” web and gave weight to the world of Gotham won’t find much connective tissue here other than the introduction of “Industry” Harry Lawtey as Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent. Fans who came to know the first film for its larger social context are not bound by any strings attached, as Folie à Deux is set in a stiflingly small world.

    Even Gaga fans who were hoping for a breakout moment from the singer to show her everything will be disappointed. Gaga is compelling and engaging in the role, but the way the character is written, Lee lacks the arc for a signature moment of unfettered Gaga character. She begs to break out, unleash her Gaga magic and explode into song, but she’s never given the opportunity.

    Who is “Folie à Deux” suitable for? The best way to say it is that director and co-writer Todd Phillips is giving the middle finger to the fanboys who made the first film a sensation, an attempt to burn down what the first film built. But “Joker” is too sheltered a property to abandon entirely, and so “Folie à Deux” ends up in a frustrating limbo, feeling caught in the middle of the back-and-forth between feuding partners and not bringing anything up not much on either side. Like a clown playing a sad song, this “Joker” is a big bummer.

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    “Joker: Folie à Deux”

    Grade: C-

    Rated R: for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality and brief full nudity

    Running time: 139 minutes

    In the cinema

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    Caradoc Wyn
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