Joker: Foil A Deux was unveiled to the public on Wednesday as Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his critically and box office-successful film joker premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and the first reviews have already been published.
In the Warner Bros. film, Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck/Joker, a role that earned Phoenix an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in the 2019 film. In the sequel, Lady Gaga joins the cast in the key role of Harley Quinn, the Joker’s equally damaged accomplice. In Joker: Foil A DeuxArthur Fleck is imprisoned in Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as the Joker. There, according to previously released trailers, he finds true love with Gaga’s Harley Quinn and also the “music that has always been inside him.”
Joker: Foil A Deux with Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener. Zazie Beetz reprises her role from jokerThe sequel is scheduled to hit theaters on October 4.
Read on to find out what critics say about Joker: Foil A Deuxwhich has received mixed reviews so far.
The Hollywood ReporterChief film critic David Rooney calls Folie À Deux “uneven” and writes that while Gaga’s performance is commendable, the sequel is “narratively a bit thin and at times boring.” He notes that “Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver in the first joker had the robust framework of not one but two Martin Scorsese films, Taxi driver And The King of Comedyon which to hang their story and set their tone. This one is based more on imagination than on a solid story foundation.”
Jo-Ann Titmarsh writes for London’s Evening Standardagrees with Rooney, noting that the film lacks a “tingle of suspense” and a “sense of madness taking over.” She adds, “Despite its fascinating and complex main character, the film is ultimately dull and ponderous, taking us nowhere.”
In the meantime, vultureAllison Willmore of The Movies believes that one of the film’s main problems is that Arthur “just isn’t that interesting, despite Phoenix putting a lot of effort into detailing the character, with his soul gloriously tortured and his chest sunken.” She also writes that even when Arthur “thinks he’s in control,” he “becomes a punching bag for the world and, more importantly, for the director, who subjects the character to so much humiliation that he’s no longer actually pitiable, but resembles the punch line of a long, shaggy joke.”
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw of The Movie magazine feels that Gaga is underused in the sequel, despite the buzz her lead role generated, pointing out that the film’s “story, as constructed, doesn’t give Gaga’s character much opportunity to develop.”
However, some critics were very impressed with Phillips’ new interpretation of the Joker and his lover.
“Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds a fascinating way to explore the consequences (both on-screen and off) of the first film,” NME‘s writes Matthew Turner. “joker Fans shouldn’t cry too much, though – Warner Bros. has cleverly found a way to leave the door slightly open for a sequel to the franchise, should the need arise.”
The IndependentGeoffrey Macnab of The Movie found that Phillips “clearly had fun in the director’s chair” with his “tour through at least a century of Hollywood” with musical numbers and references to various classics. He found that Phoenix’s performance “remains powerful and stirring” and allows viewers to “sympathize with Arthur despite his neediness and mental illness.”
John Nugent at Rich also believes the musical moments helped the story, writing: “The unorthodox, raw delivery of Phoenix and Gaga’s songs works in a way that a script with little dialogue can – Burt Bacharach’s ‘Close To You’ has rarely been performed so gruesomely – but where the first film was relentlessly oppressive and gloomy, there’s a strangely hopeful tone here. Arthur’s performance of ‘For Once In My Life’ in particular is a strange mix of quiet menace and genuinely heartfelt passion.”
