Joker: Folie a Deux

When Joker came onto the scene several years ago, it was a memorable experience, to say the least. Mere months before Covid shut down the world, most of the media was losing its mind over the film and potential impact it would have. 

Instead, it was a remarkable look at mental illness, combined with some fantastic filmmaking, scoring, and acting, all encased in a famous IP as the background (and to get some extra $$ at the box office, let's be real). I really enjoyed it, as it made my Top 10 later that year and won several other awards. Years later, it's easy to say it was one of those that "sticks" with you. 

When a sequel was announced, it felt obvious given the dollars involved, but unnecessary. However, as they revealed Lady Gaga would be joining as Harley Quinn and it would be a musical, I think most everyone's interest piqued. "You have my attention"...

Given these are Rapid Reviews, I don't hide my main takeaway very deep in the reviews anymore. Joker: Folie a Deux is not as good as its predecessor. It's a distant gap. Though, it's also not one of the worst films of the year as I see others claiming it to be. Bluntly, one week removed from Megalopolis, and the memory of that is making a case for that film to take that crown. Oh wait, sorry, I forgot that Kinds of Kindness has that on lock. 

I digress, but it's disappointing that so many things that made Joker work in the first place are somewhat left by the wayside here. The cinematography is forced to spend 80% of its time in a jail or a courtroom, both of which begin to get tedious. It's still gorgeous at times, but never feels like it has room to breathe. The incredible, haunting original score of the first film is significantly cut back, in favor of the aforementioned musical elements. Outside of some standout, all-out musical numbers, this is a truly awful musical because the majority of the songs are Gaga or Phoenix whisper-singing to one another, or singing with hardly any instrumental backing. And even Phoenix's performance gets less time to shine and less "wow" moments. Unsurprisingly, it's still impressive (and damn is he thin!), but I didn't feel it's impact as much this time around. Gaga, for what it's worth, is great when her character needs it most. She feels underused, strangely, despite having a lot of runtime though. 

Aside from the "musical" part that was a total letdown (again, aside from 1-2 scenes), none of the above letdowns are outright bad, but instead just dull. Where there was life (depressing as it was) in the original, this feels like it's subtly going by the numbers despite the value-add elements it includes. I'd even argue the overall story which basically equates to "Here are the consequences of the first film" is generally interesting, but only if it had shaved 20-30 minutes off the runtime. Its ending is a little more exciting and the final scene is a surprising interpretation, but it can't help the rest of the film feel like it should have been more.

Joker: Folie a Deux is a disappointingly (and shockingly) bland sequel to an original that was memorably engrossing. The musical element is a dud, while the rest of it doesn't get close to making the impact you'd expect with those involved. I'm not angered that I saw it - it was interesting overall - but it's not something that will be on my mind several weeks later, and that's perhaps the worst joke of all.

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 6/10