Unfortunately, I was ripped from musical nirvana and sent back to the grim reality, which is what happens to Fleck and Harley several times in this film. I assume Phillips was aiming for something similar to Dennis Potter’s 1981 adaptation of Pennies From Heaven, but he fails miserably. In this film, cheerful song and dance interludes briefly alleviate the hell of the Great Depression.

In this sequel, music temporarily frees Arthur from his brutal existence at Arkham Asylum, where he was sent after killing six people in the first film. Phoenix and Gaga sing compositions by Rodgers & Hart, Anthony Newley, the Gershwins and Stevie Wonder. They don’t completely ruin the material, but they don’t do its composers any favors either.

Phillips and Scott Silver’s script can’t stop telling us the gory details of those murders from Joker. If you took a shot at every time someone said on live television that Arthur “shot Murray Franklin’s brains out,” you’d be drunk enough to sit through Joker: Folie à Deux.

The tempo is ice cold – and we can’t blame the songs. “Folie à Deux” is not only a lousy musical, but also a terribly boring courtroom drama. It takes forever for the opening scene to show mean prison guard Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson) preparing Arthur for the meeting with his lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener).

The majority of the film takes place in the Gotham City courthouse, where Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) is prosecuting Arthur while Harley makes wide eyes at her love interest. Dent brings characters from the first film up to date, including Arthur’s former neighbor Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz) and his old colleague Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill).

This plotline feels like a rip-off of the series finale of “Seinfeld,” in which everyone wronged by Jerry and his crew returns after being imprisoned in Latham, Massachusetts to testify against them. Gill evokes genuine empathy and pathos in his one scene. Too bad he has to play it while being cross-examined by Arthur in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn.

Like the first film, Phoenix’s performance is nothing short of swagger. Granted, Joker won him the Oscar for Best Actor, but I will go to my grave and believe that his win is one of the worst in the history of the category.

Gaga tries to bring the thrill of romance to her songs, but she wasn’t given a character to play. She has no chemistry with Phoenix and her Harley Quinn is miles away from the complex and entertaining version Margot Robbie gave us in 2020’s Birds of Prey.

I can’t imagine fans will like what Phillips is doing with the Joker here, but then again, studios are counting on you to see these comic book movies, no matter how poorly made they are. With rare exceptions, audiences are flocking to give DC and Marvel their money. I bet this movie will break even before bad word of mouth catches up with it.

At one point, Harley sings the MGM standard “That’s Entertainment.” “Joker: Folie à Deux” is anything but that.

½★

JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX

Directed by: Todd Phillips. Written by Phillips and Scott Silver. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz and Leigh Gill. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, Suburbs. 138 minutes. R (demonstrative violence, profanity, an incredibly bad sex scene)

Odie Henderson is the film critic for the Boston Globe.