Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) Dir. Todd Phillips

Set a short while after the original Joker (2019), the film sees Arthur Fleck facing a trial for his wrongdoings as he struggles to keep his alter ego at bay, find his true love, as well as discovering his love for music.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a big swing and a massive miss. The concept of having a musical based around Joker is a fascinating one. But sadly, Todd Phillips doesn’t commit hard enough to the genre to make a meaningful impact. Infact the musical element of the film feels more like an afterthought, the songs themselves distract from the story being told and after a while the gimmick gets tiring. There are one or two songs that absolutely nail the tone the film is trying to go for, but unfortunately the other songs from the catalogue serve little to no purpose.

The film starts off quite well, the first hour is brilliant, it’s filled with great character moments and sets up a promising direction for the movie, It completely engrosses you in the story. Pheonix and Gaga’s performances are also highlighted here. The story really has time to breathe and fully explore the Jokers phycological state; while also showing the romance brew between the two leads. The issues start in the second act for me, the trial begins and the movie switches to a court room drama. This leads to key characters like Gaga’s Harley Quinn being sidelined in favour of a slower pace and more character driven moments, as well as this the movie really starts to drag in places is shouldn’t and sadly makes the film boring in places.

The performances from Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) and Lady Gaga (Harley Quinn) are particularly good. They both carry the film on their backs and make the viewing experience a lot more bearable. While Pheonix never reaches the heights of the original film, he still puts in a lot of effort in making the tortured super villain believable and empathetic. With the amount of time Gaga has before being put on the back burner, she makes this iteration of Harley her own and making her easily a standout of the film.

One of the biggest positives with this film is its cinematography. The film is shot incredibly well, the colours feel very vibrant when they want to exaggerate the surrealist aspects of the film, and so muted when they want to bring the story back down to earth. There are so many camera shots throughout that you cannot help but applaud for how great they look. It does genuinely feel like the audience is descending into madness with the joker at times, additionally making the movie seem a lot more personal with more close ups and tracking shots.

Furthermore, the costuming is also another stand out for me, expanding from the first films outfits, this film enlarges the joker's wardrobe, especially when he is in a dream sequence, these costumes are also entirely relevant to the story making them more thoughtful and intentional this time around.

There was so much potential here for something great. But Todd Phillips throws so much at the wall with not much of it sticking. This is easily once of the biggest disappointments of the year especially considering how much hype was built around this movie when it was first revealed. There are some great moments but overall ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is a messy movie that never needed to be made and doesn’t come close to the greatness of the first film.

★★★

Jacob Holmes

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