It’s a fact – Joker: Folie à Deux has a plethora of musical interludes that most people thought were peripheral to the story. This is the bold and controversial continuation of the origin story of a nemesis of Batman, for which a plethora of Oscar nominations was received in the year 2020 and even won the award for leading male actor. The new movie has achieved some very adverse early reviews but how fast we all still lapse into the defensive posture that even Joker did go to some extremes and offended even some people, nevertheless, it is a conventionally award wrestling. For the exposure to the rating on rotten tomatoes and the comments of D C fans on the two films made by Todd Phillips on The Joker one will get an inkling of the goring headlines which affirm that each created a stir and caused a little alarm.
One may have read complaints about the first one such as, “Why the excessive and glorified violence? Isn’t this just a blatant copy of The King of Comedy from about 40 years back? What is really new here?” And for the sequel: “Eh, a bit boring and meandering, difficult no?” I’m sorry, I’m a huge fan of the first film and, no what, I am in a mood to call Joker: Folie à Deux as yet another brilliant work by Phillips, the director who used to make films like Old School and The Hangover, but now is praised for his work with serious content. And he is back to work with Scott Silver with whom Phillips was again quoting at the Los Angeles premiere of Joker 2 saying, “As artists we have to be brave. We have to take risks.” Brother and sister.
As for the readers who do not know the particular French identity term, “folie à deux” means ‘the madness of two’ which indicates a certain type of delusion shared by two people who are associated with each other. The phrase used in the title is well fitted for the medical conditions in the film as the titular antagonist’s groupie and partner in crime gets introduced in Phillips’ rendition of the DC universe with a similarity in the aim of destruction.
One of the bold rendering of Harley Quinn’s back story came out within the year 2022, with The People’s Joker – the independent film that made waves at film festivals. In what is also quite fascinating, Gaga is not at all depicted in such a manner with regards to the well-known villain of Batman. The very first time they encounter Arthur Fleck is in music class in the correction facility where he is incarcerated during the start of the film.
However, suppose you have done that: how on earth do you start another creative part to this beautiful creative sequel of the joker’s origin story? Folie à Deux begins in usual Warner Bros. Entertainment style as the opening credits. Rather, it happens in the format of a cartoon that is amusingly grim as it recaps any possible events that dished out rather beautifully in the earlier installment. There is need to note, that there is a bit of a time jump between these two films, Arthur now quite settled in life at the local prison, in quite settled in daily life activities doing odd job for them earns credits.
As I mentioned, Arthur is still nauseatingly skinny like the first go around, but perhaps more so now, still because Jackie Sullivan and his other sickly sweet looking guards maybe even more sympathetic. It has been a struggle for him to back to normal since it’s apparent that his body has undergone drastic changes. His need, there appears to be little, no food, in his case, likely all the food he eats comes from his mom.
The manner in which the 2019 biography-thriller, Joker: Folie à Deux, is shot is also is imax appropriate and of course beautiful cinematography helps in showing us soon into terrible places around the prison area of Arthur: his murderous associates and occasional visitors like Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), Arthur’s lawyer who is all poised to try and clear Arthur of the charges. His liability? Indeed, the five gruesome homicides that Fleck carried out in the first movie – most notably the brutal slaying of talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) were perpetrated in the messy chaotic style of Arthur’s alter ego…. the Joker!
As long as such a synecdoche actions last and end in the courthouse, that is where the audience is satisfied in terms of acting. First, then there are old faces some of whom were called as witnesses and testify in this round about some of Arthur’s nasty murders that had happened in this epic four weeks that began with three bullies in the New York subway. Standing out with a qualified dynamite Zazie Beetz gets on the witness stand and plays Sophie Dumond who narrates her how Arthur an ex-neighbor intimidated her before venting out — and we are not revealing other returning shocks in this regard.
The games that we’ve seen so far also introduce new characters, and among them is young Harvey Dent, whose character is played by British actor Harry Lawtey, who succeeds with an American accent this time. It’s ok- if you’ve seen the bartender and Harvey fill scenes in HBO’s Industry series, they’re back in action with a very amusing albeit brief reunion with Ken Leung in Joker’s courtroom where Harvey plays a doctor approved by the prosecution, stating that Arthur was sane when he decided to massacre a bunch of people in the first part of the film.
One thing’s for sure and that is some of the DC Universe fans who might be on the look out “for a bit of the ol’ ultraviolence” -borrowing a quote from one of the Joker’s greatest influences- might be in for a rude shock in regard to lacking such violence in the latest installment, with much lesser action than the beginning film. At some points, audiences of the current film can even yell boredom on the other hand there are parts of absurdity that are drama and maybe sad tinged so far as they relate to the ever changing turmoil in Arthur’s head.
A spectacular show from Phoenix once again, while Arthur is trying to manage mania, please everyone, can be very angry, slightly human and find it funny himself. In the jail, he is ready for an interview with a top-notch journalist, played here by Steve Coogan in an American accent, who sits opposite Arthur and from where he fires unfortunate questions to go right inside him. We can all guess how their little chat might end.
Yes, there are also numbers in the music catalogue ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’- and that is for better or worse, possibly worse even, for the fans of a superhero comic book genre. Lady Gaga has already come out with the companion to Harlequin and the reason for this may be because of the limited scope of her role in the movie. Not that she does not sometimes go all out, but while going gung-ho is great, some of her character turning out to be more about the script than the fellow actors.
In the end of joker 2, the climactic third act and the ending clearly leaves room for the emergence of their own version of star performers, should Phillips break his promise and decide to make more of his sick version genious dc universe . Remains to be seen. But for now, we have this mad dance, and while it’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea (sometimes by design), there is a definite adrenaline-overload of the movie experience which I for one do not shy away from. From Warner Bros.
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