Following the massive success of “Joker” in 2019, director Todd Phillips worked with Warner Bros. again to make “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which was released on Oct. 4, 2024. With the first movie grossing over a billion dollars, this sequel had a big name to live up to. 

Joaquin Phoenix  returns as Arthur Fleck, the troubled man known to the public as Joker, and Lady Gaga plays Harley Quinn. This movie did not live up to the name of the first movie whatsoever.

This movie follows Fleck two years after the events of the first Joker movie. Fleck has battles not only within himself but also with the court about whether he and the Joker are two different personalities, caused by trauma and mental illness, or if Joker is an excuse for Fleck’s murderous behavior.

Acting

Let us start off by talking about the acting. That was the one thing that could be given a little bit of credit to. Phoenix did a good job at portraying Fleck for about 75 percent of the movie. But, Phoenix did not play Fleck as well as he did in the first film. In this film, Fleck does not speak until about ten minutes into the movie, and even though it is not, it feels like Fleck’s dialogue is limited in this film. This is because about half of everything Fleck says is all in his head and does not matter to the bigger picture of the story. Gaga on the other hand, does not do as well in her role. Gaga was not investing into her role as Quinn and so every time the duo, Fleck and Quinn, were on screen together it was very uninteresting. Gaga was not able to retain interest in her character, and so when her and Joker were on screen they shared no chemistry.

Setting

The setting of “Joker: Folie à Deux” was horrible. It had so much potential with being set in a prison and a courthouse for the majority of the movie. In general, a good court drama is interesting, most of the time. But, this movie severely lacks. The prison scenes were boring, most of them ending with Joker smoking a cigarette as a way to avoid further development and as a gateway into another scene. There was no color grading that was interesting and most of the scenes looked very gray or brown like wood. Nothing that keeps the eye attached to the screen. The courthouse scenes feel like they only consist of three different angles, the one on Joker, the one on Gotham D.A. (District Attorney) Harvey Dent, and one on the judge and witness. 

After the first court scene, it gets boring due to the lack of variety. A simple camera swing or transition could have helped this. The only few times that the setting looks appealing is when Joker and Quinn are doing a musical number together on stage for their own show, where there is vibrant orange and green and red everywhere. But, this short lived scene all took place in Joker’s head, which made it feel pointless.

Plot

The plot of the movie also had a lot of potential, but failed to even break the grounding on what it could have been. This movie is not a Joker movie. “Joker: Folie à Deux” is very much a character study on Arthur Fleck. It is not a love story between Fleck and Quinn. It is not an action movie starring the infamous villain Joker. It is a character study about who Fleck really is. There is really only one or two scenes where Fleck even wears the Joker costume and makeup. The rest of the movie has Fleck looking like an average inmate. This makes the movie boring. 

This movie loses a lot of potential by not having Joker commit any crimes with Quinn. Just having a small crime scene with the duo would have taken this movie up levels. But, the two are barely seen by themselves and they do not share a crime spree, which normally is what makes the two a duo. Joker spends all of his time in this movie behind bars, whether it is in the prison or the court, which ruins the whole Joker persona because he is infamous for always escaping prison and wreaking havoc on the city of Gotham.

Characters

The characterization of both Fleck and Quinn is just another thing that this film does wrong. This Quinn is one of the worst modern interpretations of the character of Harley Quinn. In the comics, Quinn is a therapist that falls in love with her patient, the Joker, and goes psycho, following Joker in his footsteps to prove she is worthy to him. In this film, Quinn is a rich fan of Fleck who bribes her way into jail to see and be with Fleck. Quinn then manipulates Joker at her own will, which is opposite of what normally happens in DC media. This was not a good way to change the origin. 

Quinn felt like a different character altogether, and her appearance did not help that. She had eye makeup on for one scene of the film, and for the rest of the film, did not match the appearance of her comic counterpart. 

Fleck cannot commit to the persona of the Joker in this film, which really has a negative impact on the quality of the film. Like stated earlier, this film is a character study of Fleck, which does not match with the name of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” If Fleck was able to commit to the Joker persona for the majority of this movie, the character would have felt more fleshed out and complete. But, the character starts and ends the movie with no development because of this commitment issue.

Pacing

The pacing of this movie was slow and felt like it could not stick to a single genre. Some of the movie was a musical, but it did not want to fully commit. There were multiple musical sequences that all were pointless to the overall story of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The other part of this movie was a courthouse drama. But, none of the scenes went anywhere, besides the scene that reveals the final verdict. They all repeated the same information scene after scene. This was unsatisfying.

All in all, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is nothing like the first movie. The themes, tone, settings, and characters are all polar opposites of each other, but some might like this movie for this reason. This movie could not be attached to the Joker but another killer in court and it would have been more enjoyable because it would not have such a high standard to live up to.

“Joker: Folie à Deux” is a sequel that should have stayed in the drafts at DC, scoring 1/5 star from me.