Joker: Folie a Deux…or, as Arthur Fleck might say, “Joker: Folie a Dookie, amirite?”
Okay, maybe he wouldn’t say that. His humor trended more highbrow. Rather, Arthur would laugh to himself as he perhaps thought of that joke and then say…
You wouldn’t get it…
He’s right. I don’t get it. Joker: Folie a Deux is weird.
Joker (2019) proved to be a phenomenon. A $60 million movie that made a billion dollars without having Batman in it. It didn’t have any superheroes in it, plus zero overblown CGI action scenes. Rather, it featured an emaciated Joaquin Pheonix as a man holding on to life by his fingernails…and then proceeding to chew them off.
Complaints existed, sure.
Joker is a ripoff of The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver, they said.
That’s fair. Yet Joker worked well regardless, resting mostly on the bony shoulders of Joaquin. His Arthur Fleck proved fascinating to watch as he travelled from a pathetic put-upon to a psychotic paragon.
It should have ended there. Instead, the gang came back for an encore…
Joker: Folie a Duex
If a $60 million film pulls in a billion dollars, a sequel is a no brainer. The direction of a sequel is also a no brainer.
Instead of melding The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver and the Joker, meld One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Escape From Alcatraz and the Joker. Or maybe swap out Alcatraz with The Shawshank Redemption and make the warden the hero as he tries to thwart a Joker escape. Either way, you get the idea. Then end by putting in the onramp to the Pattison Batman world.
Instead, the gang said: here’s a better idea, let’s pump the budget up three times the original and deliver a pseudo-musical where nothing happens. Meanwhile, we will systematically destroy the character we built. And let’s throw in a pop star who likes to be vomited on as a bonus.
We all know what happened…
Joker: Folie a Deux make one-fifth of the original and died on the vine.
The Joker Is On You
I was all-in on a Joker sequel. When I heard it was going a musical route, I didn’t even question it. I enjoy a good musical. Plus, I figured it would probably be a “musical” the same way The Big Lebowski is a musical: a couple wacky numbers thrown in that wouldn’t upset the applecart. They would simply salt the dish.
Then reviews came out (this was before early reviews were total shill love letters), and I nope’ed out of the whole experience.
But time is a circle, and dogs return to their own vomit. Last night I found myself with two of the three and decided to check out Joker: Folie a Deux. Maybe everyone was wrong.
Alas, no. They were on target as Yusuf Dikec.
Joker: Folie a Deux is firmly in the “What Were They Thinking?” category.
Joker: Folie a Deux, My Fair Spanish Lady
Various theories ran through my mind for while Joker: Folie a Deux was so bad.
Maybe this was another performance art stunt from Joaquin, like when he adopted that rapper persona for I’m Still Here and went on Letterman to goofball it up. Joker: Folie a Deux was his Freddy Got Fingered, and Joaquin and Tom Green got together for dinner and Joaquin said…
“I totally beat you man. You got a studio to give you $15 million to make a turkey. I got a studio to give me $150 million plus.”
Or maybe James Gunn took over DC and let Joaquin and Todd Phillips know that their version of the Joker had no place in his DC-Via-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy world, so Joaquin and Todd Phillips looked at each other and said…
“Do you want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts!”
Or maybe it was a vanity project that got out of control. Maybe everyone believed they were geniuses after the first film and could do no wrong, and they were right. They didn’t do wrong. They did really, really wrong.
Or maybe Joaquin and Phillips contracted a horrible case of progressive guilt when wokesters labeled Joker as an anthem for incels, so they decided to make a follow-up where every bit of rage-power Arthur Fleck acquired proved to be an illusion that led to him being emasculated, dying and of no interest to goth chicks after all.
Curse my logical brain for trying to make sense of things!
Joker: Folie a Hot Shots: Part Deux
Read the production history of Joker: Folie a Deux proved to be of no help. From that, it appears they put actual thought into making the film they did.
This does not spark confidence or joy in me.
Joker is not a plot film. It is a character journey film and works on that. Joker: Folie a Deux is not a plot film either. It also isn’t a character journey film either because the road Arthur Fleck travels is like the Lost Woods in The Legend of Zelda. You just keep walking through the same screen over and over again if you don’t know the pattern.
Scott Silver, screenwriter, obviously set his Edgar Wallace Plot Wheel aside for this one.
For a musical, Joker: Folie a Deux fails, as well. Generally speaking, musicals have some sort of choreography to their numbers. The songs in this movie are simply Joaquin being slightly more animated than William Shatner on Rocket Man. Sometimes Lady Gaga joins in and twitches or adds a more throaty soul to the proceedings, which is interesting because everyone thought she sold her soul long ago.
Joker: Folie a Deux really only has three moments of pep in its 138-minute runtime: the opening cartoon, Joaquin doing his Foghorn Leghorn lawyer impression and the mountain musical number. That’s not a good ratio…
Joker: Folie a Deux And Good Riddance
The end of the film sees Arthur Fleck stabbed by a giggly inmate who proceeds to cut a Glascow Smile into his own cheeks.
The version of the Joker created in Joker was interesting. He took after the version of the Joker shown in The Killing Joke. I don’t mind these different iterations of a character. The character is literally going on 100 years old, so different takes will happen.
But going from Arthur Fleck back to a character who is nothing but a giggling visage is disappointing. Seeing Arthur Fleck take the next step to being the Clown Prince of Crime could have fit in with the Farrell Penguin and Pattinson Batman.
Yet, all we ended up with was Lady Gaga with running mascara…
