Not since 1990, when Joe Dante turned out the anarchic GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, has a filmmaker so gleefully subverted his own blockbuster. Todd Phillips’ JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (JOKER: MADNESS FOR TWO) follows his 2019 BATMAN pastiche JOKER, a massive hit that received a fair amount of Oscar attention (with a Best Actor award for its headliner Joaquin Phoenix and a Best Director nomination for Phillips). For this $200 million sequel Philips indulged himself to the fullest; while JOKER took its cues from Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER (1976), FOLIE À DEUX’s major inspiration was evidently Scorsese’s NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977), with the result being a stylistically expansive, audience-unfriendly musical that plays like it was made by the Joker himself.
A ROLLING STONE article headline, “JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Has A Message to Fans: Go Fuck Yourselves,” has taken hold among reviewers and commentators. The film did indeed greatly upset fans of its predecessor, but also those outside JOKER’s target audience, which appears to have been Phillips’ very Joker-esque aim.
In JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX the Joaquin Phoenix essayed Arthur Fleck is confined to a very gothic mental hospital, which is where the majority of this stark and claustrophobic film is set. It’s there that Fleck, as outlined in a cartoon prologue, battles his alter-ego: a clown-faced psychopath who, you’ll recall, led an incel uprising that involved the killings of the parents of Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman.
The latter is nowhere to be found in this film, which isn’t exactly respectful to the Batman mythos, or the DC universe overall (Philips reportedly claimed he “wanted nothing to do with DC”). That extends to the Lady Gaga played Harley Quinn stand-in Lee Quinzel, who Fleck meets in a music therapy session. It’s love at first sight, giving Fleck a new lease on life and inspiring several fantasy music numbers. These two lovebirds attempt an unsuccessful break-out that concludes with Fleck being placed in solitary confinement and Quinzel bribing her way into the cell, from which she emerges impregnated.
Fleck is put on trial, with Quinzel an eager onlooker. The defense is (understandably) weak, inspiring Fleck to fire his attorney and represent himself—and do so in full Joker get-up. But after hearing the tearful testimony of Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill), who was severely traumatized by Fleck’s rampage in the previous film, he has a change of heart. This, however, does nothing to staunch the destructive tide he’s set in motion, or his relationship with Quinzel, which is dependent on the Joker persona.
Those familiar with Todd Phillips’ early films, which include the documentaries HATED (1993) and FRAT HOUSE (1998), will recognize the subversive sensibility at work here. Commercial JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX isn’t (despite having a very commercial predecessor) and nor is it an easy watch, as the art film pacing is lugubrious and the violence (sparse though it is) brutal and unsparing. Even more detrimental from a commercial standpoint is the play with reality and illusion, with the boundaries deliberately blurred. That’s especially evident in the copious music numbers, consisting of archaic songs utilized (Dennis Potter-like) to express the characters’ unsettled mental states.
Yet the film is impressive in many respects, starting with the imposing widescreen photography by Lawrence Sher. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is strong, while Lady Gaga fares well in the musical sequences (in which Phoenix comes off as halting and embarrassed), and they’re given solid support by talents like Brandan Gleeson and Katherine Keener, although acting is far from the main draw of this auteur driven spectacle.
I say one has to admire a film as perverse and uncompromising as this one. Had Warner Bros. dubbed it into a foreign language and released it to the arthouse circuit I suspect that Phillips’ subversive intentions would have been appreciated, but as a $200 million superhero epic JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX’s October 2024 release was met with anemic box office returns and critical disinterest. Not to worry, though, because in the coming years it will almost certainly undergo a reassessment and be dubbed a misunderstood classic. I just hope Phillips enjoyed making the film, because it’s a certainty that he’ll never again be given the same level of creative freedom he got on JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX.
Vital Statistics
JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX
Warner Bros.
Director: Todd Phillips
Producers: Joseph Garner, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Screenplay: Scott Silver, Todd Phillips
Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
Editing: Jeff Groth
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, Leigh Gill, Ken Leung, Jacob Lofland, Bill Smitrovich, Sharon Washington, Alfred Rubin Thompson, Connor Storrie, Gregg Daniel, Marc Brandt, George Carroll, John Lacy