Venice 2024: ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Takes Arthur to Court, And That’s It?
by Alex Billington
September 4, 2024
“Hey Fleck, you got a joke for us today?” The moment has come. Everyone’s favorite Clown Prince of Crime in Gotham City is back on the big screen. After five years of waiting, the sequel is finally here. Finally ready to dazzle us with some song & dance. Joker: Folie à Deux, again directed by Todd Phillips, is premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival – the very same place where Joker premiered back in 2019 and ended up winning the Golden Lion (here’s my review from back then). How will the story continue? Where will Arthur go next? Well, it turns out he’s going to court. Again – since this is the second time he’s been in court for the events of the first Joker movie. Unfortunately, this time they do hold back. There are not many provocative ideas in this sequel, it’s primarily a direct follow-up to the first movie, mainly commenting on & responding to the criticisms of and events within that story. This sequel feels closer to The Matrix Resurrections than anything else, despite being a glorious musical following the DC Comics villains the Joker and Harley Quinn as they find their way out of Arkham. So maybe we never really did need a sequel to the first movie after all?
Well at least there’s plenty to talk about with Joker: Folie à Deux. Once again, I admire the filmmaking. A few of the musical numbers are so wonderful and lavish that I felt them in my chest, my heart beating faster watching the scenes on the screen. Joaquin Phoenix returns again as Arthur Fleck, also known as “Joker”, though when this starts he’s locked up at the Arkham State Hospital prison. The guards there treat all of the violent criminals terribly, but what can they do. Everything changes for Arthur when he catches a glimpse of a woman named Lee, as played by Lady Gaga aka Stefani Germanotta, short for Harleen Quinzel (or Harley Quinn, of course). But this movie is not about her origin story, it’s not her story at all. They quickly fall in love and get intro trouble but then Arthur’s trial begins. His lawyer has asked for a retrial to get him moved to a different prison with better doctors by using the excuse he’s insane and has split personalities. It’s Joker that killed the people in the first movie, not Arthur Fleck, or so she claims. What do you believe? The rest of the movie is pretty much a court room thriller with a few twists regarding his case, but not much else happens. By the end my most pervading thought: what, that’s it? This is half a movie. Where’s the rest?
The one word that keeps coming to mind when I think of how to try and describe Joker: Folie à Deux is: frustrating. I love the first Joker movie, I think it’s an entirely brilliant, edgy, moralistically complex tale of a misunderstood man who is abused by everyone else in society. He acts out, goes too far and kills a few people, inadvertently starting a movement where other people who have also been mistreated by society are inspired by his Joker persona. But does Arthur Fleck really understand this movement? Does he understand what’s going on out there? Co-written by Scott Silver & Todd Phillips, directed again by Todd Phillips, Joker 2 plays out almost entirely as a response to the ridiculous criticisms of the first movie. It spends most of its runtime, including the entire court room drama, cleverly explaining away the idea of the Joker as the dangerous bad guy, and instead allows his character to passively be what everyone is reacting to – instead of him being the one acting out. The Joker doesn’t do that much in this movie, he isn’t nefarious, he’s not some crime kingpin, he barely touches anyone. He falls in love with Harley, but he’s depressed in prison and that’s it. He doesn’t even seem to understand himself of the difference between Arthur & Joker either. Or does he?
What is so frustrating about this sequel is that after spending all this time correcting what was wrong about the irrational response to the first movie as part of the narrative, it has nothing more to say, nothing new to add, nothing else going on. Which is strange… Something seems off in here – were they afraid of pushing it further? Just when it starts getting good, just when you think okay now it’s time for the Joker to go back out into Gotham and start a new revolution, it ends. It’s over – as if they don’t want to provoke again. There’s no chance to do anything more or continue the storyline with fresh, new ideas. At times it seems to reference a scary thought about social media in contemporary society – followers can be so thoroughly obsessed with an idea of someone they admire that they can turn against that person and get very angry when they don’t stay true to whatever it is these followers deem is their proper identity. The concept of “the Joker” has now taken on a life of its own and spread beyond Arthur. Which is, again, something the first movie introduces and was already part of the conversation after that movie came out. Joker 2 even makes reference to this much like the way The Matrix Resurrections references the original Matrix film as part of its philosophical narrative.
One thing that Joker: Folie à Deux really does get right is how this version of The Joker (separate from the comic book character) is not really a bad guy – he’s a mirror for society. In the first movie, and continuing in this sequel, Arthur Fleck is an anti-hero who, even though he does some bad things, is not entirely a villain because he is a character who is capable of lifting up the curtain and showing humanity the truth about how horrible and evil and disgusting most people are. In this sequel, that idea is pushed even further as Arthur becomes a mirror for everyone else. They think he’s a bad guy and must make him out to be one, when really everyone who interacts with them is just revealing their true selves. And it turns out there’s a lot of horrible people out there, even if they’re not murderers like Arthur is, they’re just as awful and yet they get away with it. All of the supporting characters, from Lady Gaga as Harley to Brendan Gleeson as a prison guard to Catherine Keener as his lawyer to his fellow inmates that admire him, are all expressing their own deep, dark true selves by looking up to Arthur. While this is a fascinating concept, it’s the start of one theme that never plays out properly in the third act. It never progresses into the more impactful narrative like it should.
Despite my disappointment with this sequel, there is still so much to admire and enjoy anyway. Phoenix is extraordinary again as Arthur, exploring even more complex sides of his identity. Gaga is phenomenal as Harley Quinn, one of her finest performances yet. The two of them breaking out into song together is easily my favorite part of the movie. The set design, the cinematography, the production quality, the look and feel of the whole movie, is once again exceptional and exciting to get lost within. I’m glad this Gotham stands apart from the other DC movies. The score by Hildur Guðnadóttir continues to be mesmerizing and eerie in equal measure. And while I may not be as satisfied with this movie as I was hoping, it is certainly creating a conversation. I have been thinking about it, discussing it, analyzing it, and attempting to make sense it for hours since the Venice press screening early in the morning. Even if most of my analysis is “why didn’t it go further, why does it stop so short?” at least there’s something to discuss; at least it isn’t instantly forgettable or lackluster. The love story between Joker and Harley is also invigorating, yet also still undercooked, never explored properly like most of this sequel. It’s as if they truly are afraid of causing a negative reaction again.
At the end of it all, the strongest lesson from Joker: Folie à Deux is that fans and followers can be the most dangerous. They can break the rules, they can turn into the violent mob that is uncontrollable, they can be unstoppable. It’s not Joker’s fault if this happens. It’s merely a reflection of the truth of humanity, simply a reflection of how dark many people are within. And this is just as scary as anything the Joker has ever done.
Alex’s Venice 2024 Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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