Back in 2019, Writer/Director Todd Phillips teamed with actor Joaquin Phoenix to create an interesting, dark, multi-level character named Arthur Fleck in JOKER. This character was so compelling that Phoenix (rightfully) won the Oscar for best Actor and Phillips (rightfully) was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar. So, what do Phillips and Phoenix do to “up the ante” in the inevitable sequel?
Why, make it a musical, of course.
Picking up after the events of the first film where Arthur Fleck is awaiting trial while incarcerated at Arkham Asylum for the murders he committed in the first film, JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX focuses on the relationship that Arthur strikes up with “SuperFan” Lee Qunizel (Lady GaGa) and the sparks and chaos that ensue.
Or do they? For this movie focuses on the blurred lines of fantasy vs. reality that these 2 live in - and the musical numbers emphasize the fantasy portion of it.
One needs to be a very certain type of viewer to enjoy the musical aspect of this film - you need to be a Dark Comic Book Movie fan that also enjoys Movie Musicals of the 1950’s. This just happens to be me, so I really enjoyed the Musical numbers that were grounded in “reality” (at least, the reality of these 2 characters) while also helping to move the story forward and to enhance the characters and the relationships of Arthur and Lee.
As for the performances, Phoenix is terrific (of course) as Arthur. The problem is that one is going to judge his performance against his previous, Oscar-winning performance and it just doesn’t measure up (mostly because of the script - more on that later). However, his singing is a pleasant surprise. Sure, at times it falls into “talk singing” (aka Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY), but Phoenix acts his way through the songs and the roughness of his voice in his musical numbers works for his character.
However, Phoenix has an issue in this movie that he didn’t in the first Joker film, he has a VERY strong performer to work against and the performance that Lady Gaga gives as Lee just might be a Oscar worthy performance here. Her Lee Quinzel is layered, nuanced and interesting and (as one might imagine) she slips in and out of the musical numbers with ease and when it is her time to shine, musically, she shows that she is…well…Lady Gaga!
Where this movie really fails, though, is in the script that Phillips wrote with Scott Silver. This film is, in essence, a courtroom drama - and a thin one at that - and Phillips and Silver just don’t have the depth of character or circumstance that makes one care much about what is happening on the screen and though Phoenix and GaGa try mightily to elevate this film above the thin script that they are given, this film ultimately, falls apart like a cheap shirt in the wash.
And…don’t get me started about the “deus ex machina” ending that seemed to come out of nowhere!
So…if you’re a musical theater and dark comic book movie person this film just might intrigue you, if not, knock 2 points off my grade below.
Letter Grade: B (for me), probably a C for everyone else.
7 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to theBank (ofMarquis)
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