THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Nobody that was a fan of DC created true expectations when Warner Bros. chose to make a movie about Batman’s greatest enemy, Joker, until it became a genuine surprise of a hit that it surpassed a billion dollars at the box office thanks to a phenomenal award winning performance by Joaquin Phoenix. Because of this said success, the studios thought we wanted more and capitalized on a sequel to bank off of. Was it worth it? I’m not so sure anymore.
PLOT
2024’s Folie á Deux takes place two years after Arthur Fleck committed murder on live television, as well as confessing to kill three more before his appearance. While in custody at Arkham State Hospital, he awaits his trial and his lawyer Maryanne Stewart makes an argument for him that he has DID and the personality of Joker is responsible for his crimes. When attending a musical therapy session, he meets a lady named Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel who admires what he did as Joker and claims to have grown up in the same neighborhood as him, as well as be imprisoned for starting a fire on an apartment building. He gets close enough to her where he confesses of killing his mother Penny. During a film screening, she starts a fire and tries to escape with him until they get caught. Arthur does get out in solitary confinement, but Lee gets let go as she claims it is to avoid his influence. Before she departs and promises to attend his trial, she has sex with him. The following day, Fleck meets another television personality named Paddy Meyers and is interviewed of the trial. That doesn’t go well when Arthur notices that Meyers is acting just like Murray, as in to push a reaction out of him for ratings’ sake. When seeing this outburst outside a tv store, Lee finds herself more deeply in love with him. As the trial starts, Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) call witnesses to dismiss the claim of insanity. Psychologist Victor Liu (Ken Leung) suspects there is no Joker due to no proper evidence, although Maryanne argues that personality had to have emerged as a result of Penny’s previous abuse towards Arthur and it officially released the day he killed the same three men on the train. His social worker Debra Kane (Sharon Washington) is called to the stand and read his diary to determine what to make of them. Based on what she reads, involving fantasizing a relationship of his neighbor Sophie Dumond, she believes Joker is real. During a recess, Maryanne tells Arthur her opinion that his relationship with Lee will tarnish better chances in winning the case since her going public with their relationship has not been beneficial. She also shares that Quinzel has been dishonest since she never started an apartment fire, has went to grad school for psychiatry and checked herself into Arkham, as well as out. Arthur does confront her about it when she visits him and she admits she lied just to be close to him, only to claim she’s pregnant with his baby and vows to create a home for them in his old apartment building. Inspired to believe things are on the right track for him, after Sophie herself suggests he was acting as Joker, Arthur dismisses Maryanne and represents himself for the remainder of the trial. After this personal decision gets approved, the last person called to the stand would be Arthur’s former co worker Gary Puddles, the only one spared by Fleck after the murder of Randall Kleinmanhoffer. Puddles expresses that although Randall was a bully to him, he didn’t deserve to be killed and admits he didn’t see the Murray Franklin incident because he was kept at the police station for his protection. In his last opinion, he admits he’s been scared of him and didn’t deserve to feel such since they were nice to each other compared to Randall. Although Fleck uses the opportunity to address that head guard Arkham Jackie Sullivan has been abusive towards him, he is so visibly affected of Gary’s words that he offers no defense, resting Dent’s case as well. When sent back to Arkham, Jackie leads another beatdown towards him with other guards and kills another inmate named Ricky (Jacob Lofland) who confronted them of their actions. The following day, Arthur gives a closing argument where he renounces the persona of Joker, takes responsibility for his actions as well as confess killing his mom. Disappointed, Lee walks out before the jury finds him guilty of murder. Just upon this announcement, a car bomb goes off caused by followers of the Joker who wanted to break him out. Despite the shell shock, Fleck abandons them since they only see him for something he is not. He does find Lee in the same stairway that took him to his old apartment, but she rejects him for giving up on the fantasy. As she sings him goodbye, he deduces she lied about being pregnant too. Just as he finds himself heartbroken for the last time, the police find him and send him back for the last time. The film ends with Arthur being stabbed to death by another inmate who then carves a smile on his own face.
THOUGHTS
The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons
PROS: It’s funny how you don’t ask for something and then you get it anyways because this is the case with Warner Bros. making a Joker sequel. I didn’t immediately hate on this the way audiences chose to turn their back on it for something they were once again not prepared for. From the second this movie opens with a Looney Tunes inspired cold open, you accept Todd Phillips directs a whole new experience that was intelligently an anti sequel because it subverts expectations and it gives you something else to digest. With the animated cold open, you’re sure its gonna be quite unpredictable and I respect that once the musical numbers. Each number fits the scenery thanks to a great combo of editing & cinematography by Lawrence Sher & Jeff Groth, that express how we live in Joker’s fantasy with each sequence. It fits the tone because Joker is the kind of character that prefers his life to be told in multiple choice so it didn’t bother me seeing an unusual jukebox soundtrack. I’m not even mad with Joaquin being intentionally off note with each number he’s part of because not every character should be a perfect singer and it’s an emphasis on it being a fantasy when Lee outshines him in those scenes, who’s portrayed by Oscar & Grammy winner Stefani ‘Lady Gaga’ Germanotta. In another twisted narrative, I think this movie is worth talking about because the morals are wisely flipped in telling us how people can follow a symbol someone could make without trying but never see the maker for who they are within, and that is the dilemma Arthur sadly copes with. Phoenix still makes this version of Joker so compelling because he’s gone through hell all his life and it gets worse when he continues speaking for himself. All he wanted was to be loved and have affection. In a way, he had the latter from Maryanne because Catherine Keener was sincere in wanting him to be free from the shackles. The problem was he couldn’t tell on what was genuine compared to Lee. The only thing I knew for sure that’d make this sequel interesting was adding Joker’s iconic love interest Harley Quinn. With Margot Robbie leaving behind big expectations after her tenure in the DCEU, Lady Gaga makes a whole 180 on what we expected and it works. With each song Arthur sings from ‘For Once In My Life, to ‘To Love Somebody’, to to ‘If You Go Away’, you believe how happy he feels thanks to her. You buy into this affection the way he does and his titular song was a way to embrace newfound confidence thanks to her, until the truth unfolds and we come to understand she is the manipulator in this relationship this time around. That motive is truly picked up on when she sings ‘They Long to Be’, ‘That’s Life’ and ‘I’ve Got the World on a String’ because she’s in control and her conscience is much clear compared to him, which makes it easy for her to take advantage of him. Because she is still connected to psychiatry, it seems to me she pursued him as her own social experiment and once he dismissed what she was most interested about him, she lost the need to be with him. It was heartbreaking to see her use him the way us DC fans would expect from him in past adaptations because this time, he saw her as his last hope only to be misled. When Arthur saw how uncomfortable Sophie & Gary were, thanks to powerful performances by Zazie Beetz and Leigh Gill respectively, he understood how much of a monster he unintentionally became in his past efforts to be seen. He dismisses Joker because he knew he wasn’t ever going to be seen the way he wanted to be and that realization is what killed him inside before out. That makes his death depressing due to how a movement he never intended to represent put him out of misery. As we saw Lee pull the bandaid that revealed her true intentions, Fleck put up with other people that felt worse than who we dealt with the first time around. Steve Coogan was indeed an echo of Murray since Paddy did not care about Fleck either, but Brendan Gleeson really was the most diabolical as Jackie. Seeing someone relish on harming mentally ill was unsettling and seeing him get away with it whereas others didn’t enhanced the mood of depression that Arthur went through. Had one good thing actually happened to him, he would’ve been content with what came his way but because that was not the case during or before the trial, he chose to accept he won’t have any luck on his side .
CONS: I don’t hate this movie the way everyone else does, but there were moments where I understood where the hatred was coming from and it’s not even the musical numbers. For instance, why doesn’t Arthur speak up sooner about Jackie’s abuse? If he knows Maryanne cares, it would not be a bad thing to try. And did Sophie ever sue the studios that made the tv movie that falsely depicted her relationship with Arthur? I mean that’s easily a defamation lawsuit to win over. Also, where is Bruce Wayne? Is he going through therapy to cope with the loss of his parents or is he descending into depression that’ll turn him into the dark knight? I know this movie is about Joker, but it’s crazy there is no exposition about what the boy is going through since the death of his parents was unknowingly Joker’s doing. Personally speaking, why wasn’t there any concern with Lee’s costume she wore in honor of Joker? I mean that’d be a distraction because there is no guarantee what she would do during the trial before walking out, especially since Arthur chose to have his own when he killed Murray. Hell, she could’ve set off that bomb if not those other followers and no one would’ve guessed it for not being observant enough. I don’t even blame Arthur for rejecting his followers, but he could’ve asked for them to take him to Lee and not run for it. If he didn’t want to be caught at that point, he could’ve kept hiding in the car. And why did it take so long Arthur to visit the B Ward for the past 2 years? There is no way he’d wait that long to talk to Maryanne if that is the place to talk to lawyers. And it’s a given that guard played by Tim Dillon was dumb as fuck thinking he’d get away with insulting Arthur as he was getting his autograph. On top of that, not even Jackie noticed Lee start the fire on the piano? It’s totally on him to not be on top of himself when he’s spent the majority of the time picking on Arthur. I even find it odd he had to find out through Maryanne that Lee was doing a lot of press interviews. There was no point in her not giving a heads up on that. Paddy also could’ve told him the truth of her past during the interview right then & there and it’s crazy he doesn’t. In conclusion, Joker: Folie á Deux is a fascinating adaptation for DC Comics by letting the wheels get loose in more creative ways than one. Whatever kind of moviegoer you are, this is worth the dissection.
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