Joker: Folie á Deux
Years after the events of the first film, Arthur Fleck is awaiting his trial fro the murder of the five people he killed.
He meets Lee in prison, who admires him and is his biggest supporter in his defense. When the trial begins, will he be let off, or will they send him to the electric chair?
Direction
Visually, this is quite a pretty movie – with some great use of colours such as yellows and greens. Colours are also important to Arthur/Joker as he is more colourful than the world around him – often seeing them where they are not there such as when he walks in the rain with the guards and the umbrellas change colour, which become the colours he wears later in court.
There are pros and cons to his direction.
I didn’t like some of the editing choices he made, one such moment happens early when Arthur is in a room full of people in the jail, and cuts to him laughing in the rain with the guards watching on.
I absolutely LOVED the long take following the ‘moment’ in the courtroom – which leads to his escape and running away from police. The choreography that must have gone behind that is extraordinary. I’m a big fan of the long take, and this was done very well.
I didn’t care for the animated sequence at the beginning either, and thought it was going to be out of place – until I saw the rest of the film.
Cast/Characters
Joaquin Phoenix returns in the titular role – which he won an Oscar for.
Lady Gaga plays the role of ‘Lee’ or Harleen Quinzell – Harley Quinn. She is sound, but I found she was most likely cast due to her superior singing abilities for most of the musical numbers.
Screen legend Brendan Gleeson also joins the cast as Jackie Sullivan – one of the guards who seemingly has a love hate relationship with Arthur – Catherine Keener plays Arthurs lawyer, who is more realistic in her support of Arthur, not necessarily trying to get him free – but trying to get him the help he needs. They both are great in their roles and what they bring to Arthur’sstory.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
At times some moments within the film tend not to make sense – however this is somewhat clever screenwriting, and organic reveals of character. Lee, a known firebug, given matches doesn’t make sense when she starts a fire, but her truth reveal later on… does.
The narrative structure is a little weaker, with the film getting two main acts instead of the traditional three. The set up to the trial, and the trial itself.
I liked the add of Harvey Dent, and that this was almost the creation of his Two-Face character.
The setting of the mid 1980s was done poorly, and apart from the ‘smoking indoors’, I didn’t really feel as if it was a realistic representation of this time period (clothes/hair etc).
The big narrative of this film was that it was created as a musical, and this was where the film not only struggled, but failed. where songs are added within the film neither felt organic – or were performed poorly. Even Gaga an Oscar winning singer/songwriter seemed to struggle with some of the pitches – and Phoenix, clearly not a strong singer was quite poor at times as well.
Because the narrative structure is weaker from the onset, the inclusion of making the film part musical, is why this film failed. That being said, the score behind the ‘musical/soundtrack’ is sensational – and has a strong dynamic/cinematic feel to it.
Overall
Going in a little after it was released, I had only heard bad things; now, having watched it myself, I understand why it flopped. A poor narrative structure, with an unnecessary ‘musical’ inclusion is why people did not go for this.
Some good performances (Gleeson, Keener), and some great direction at times (that long take sequence), aren’t enough ‘pros’ to overtake the ‘cons’ of the film.
2/5
Please have a listen to my podcast on this episode
https://antandrymoviechats.podbean.com/e/joker-folie-a-deux-2024/