Todd Phillips claims to have never planned a sequel to his nihilistic – and, for many, misogynistic – Jokerwhich won him the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and for which Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for best actor. He could (and should) have left it there: Joker. Folie à deux is a musical film without panache and without joy which fits “I’m shoving it down your throat” into a legal drama without suspense and without interest.
As for the “folie à deux” of the title, it seems to be experienced between the director of The Hangover and its star, Joaquin Phoenix, who takes on the role of Arthur Fleck/Joker for a second time. Gaunt, his arms crossed, the movement broad and in slow motion, his leg thrown into a chaotic dance, the uncomfortable laughter, he (com) enjoys it and has a blast as in Jokercubed. And, this time, he sings — not like in Walk the Lineby James Mangold, where he played Johnny Cash — and squeaks. Here, between two classics dating from the golden age of musicals (Get Happy, What the World Needs Now Is Loveetc.), he manages not to be moved by interpreting Don’t leave me/If You Go Away of Brel. That’s quite an achievement.
At his side… correction, behind him, Lady Gaga, underused although she lights up every scene in which she appears, pushes the note (right, at least!) and seems to hold the candle to the bromance between the director and the actor, in what turns out to be a very bad romance “.
Gaga, therefore, was hired to play Harleen “Lee” Quinzel/Harley Quinn. This involuntary bachelor that is Arthur thus finds a girlfriend to brighten up his stay at the Arkham psychiatric hospital, where he has been detained for two years awaiting his trial for murder. A girlfriend as crazy as him. And maybe bad for him. After all, the female figures (the mother, the neighbor, the lawyer played by Catherine Keener, etc.) do not often have the upper hand in the universe created by Todd Phillips and his writing accomplice Scott Silver . Together, they multiply here in a crude way the nods to the reproaches made to Joker. Ordinary and very limited, as inspiration.
Where is Gotham?
This is how, in a Gotham neglected by the camera and the script (anyone who has not Joker fresh in memory risk of having forgotten the state of disrepair of the city and the reasons why the mob is behind the killer clown), the show trial opens where Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the future (Harry Lawtey) tries to convict Arthur. The room is full (the courtyard too). Lee is present (behind the accused). And little by little, through the fantasized parentheses where she and her beau sing to each other about life, love, death, lark, she turns into Harley Quinn. Pale transformation, without shine. Another missed opportunity.
Joker. Folie à deux thus gets lost between two genres that he neglects. The social subject is largely evacuated. The deliberately disturbing film, instead of taking responsibility, rushes into a Wailing Wall. The story stalls in the theme of the double that it tries to explore. Without a model to follow (there were a lot of Taxi Driver by Scorsese in Joker), Todd Phillips becomes himself again. It’s not a compliment.
And even those who found Joaquin Phoenix’s performance powerful and moving in Joker might find that this suite gives more than the client asks for. For others, the consolation prize is that the actor left the director’s next project in August, without notice. Five days before the start of filming. A new collaboration between the two seems unlikely. The franchise Joker so will probably be a two without a three. Are we laughing or crying?