Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in a strange musical trial film

Todd Phillips creates a real take on Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, with a well-established duo, in an ambitious film. Too much ?

The filmmaker does not joke with his subject, both in his production and with his title character: the public enemy number one of Gotham City and Batman, the Joker. On screens Wednesday October 2, 2024, very serious, even disturbing, Joker: madness for two creates a certain discomfort by its first degree.

Real name Arthur Fleck, he is played through and through by Joaquin Phoenix, who created the role in 2019, already under the direction of Todd Phillips. Lady Gaga is the right choice alongside him in a film which has more than one surprise in store, but whose scale is a little bloated.

Not a shadow of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s cape in Joker: madness for twowhile he appeared, young, in Joker, the previous opus. Independence suits the Joker, this iconoclastic character with the head of a clown, pursued for several murders.

It echoes the fascination that serial killers exert on a segment of the population, particularly in the United States, as the film demonstrates in the demonstrations of support for it. Jack Nicholson played him in the Batman by Tim Burton in 1989, Joaquin Phoenix has appropriated it with talent in the franchise which has been dedicated to him since 2019.

Locked up in Arkham, the Gotham City asylum, while his trial is about to begin for his crimes perpetrated under the pseudonym of the Joker, Arthur Fleck meets Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), seen during a singing class. While an attack targets the courthouse, they escape and find themselves together, madly in love, in Gotham for the better and especially the worse.

For the most part, trial film, Joker: madness for two is, surprise, a musical film punctuated by numerous duet songs between Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. If the voice of the first is not extraordinary, we know the talent of the second.

And the charm works, even if the singer tried not to always be very fair, to be in tune with her partner. But the trial scenes take up a lot of space, probably too much, and they follow after an already somewhat long set-up of the plot.

Wouldn’t Todd Phillips have been too ambitious? It’s likely, especially since no ounce of humor brightens the Joker’s sad smile. Joker: madness for two turns out to be a tragedy in this respect. Isn’t it a little too much, for a product of pure pop culture, to extract it from its respectable bosom? The attractive B series of yesteryear have become blockbusters with prestigious castings. We can wonder if we are not losing out.

Gender : Drama, Action, Musical
Director: Todd Phillips
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Ken Leung
Country : UNITED STATES
Duration : 2h19
Exit : October 2, 2024
Distributer : Warner Bros. France
Synopsis : A few days before his trial for the crimes committed under the guise of the Joker, Arthur Fleck meets true love and finds himself drawn into a madness for two.