Joker: Folie a Deux
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Does anyone with brains actually like the first Joker movie? I remember watching it, being compelled by Juaquin Phoenix’s performance but just found the whole thing to be equal parts awkward and inelegant. It’s basically a movie about a guy, down on his luck, who snaps and takes matters into his own hands by resorting to violence. It’s a reflection on the audience on whether Joker’s acts were misguided or admirable.
I don’t know if Todd Phillips meant for Joker to develop such a following with the disenfranchised, but it did. And if he didn’t mean that to happen, it means he lost the reigns of this movie.
Joker Folie a Deux is maybe Phillips’ attempt to regain control of his story. Is it a fuck you to the people who loved it for “all the wrong reasons”? I don’t know. I think that’s giving him too much credit. What demented director would put so much effort and waste so many people’s time to deliberately make a bad movie? Oh, wait, you didn’t hear? This is a bad movie. And bad for so many reasons. In Folie a Deux we find Fleck beaten and a changed man. Personally, I would snap myself if I was surrounded by so many laughably one-dimensional people. The bad people are bad because they’re bad. The good people are good because they’re good. There’s no grey area. Boring. Fleck finds love in a fellow “in-mate” and reverts back to his “joker ways” to make her happy, which they express through song. Oh, you didn’t hear? This is also a musical. Now, that’s already a shot against it since most musicals are terrible and unwatchable, but in Folie a Deux, we have to gruelingly watch cut scenes of the characters in costumes singing songs which proclaim their love and don’t add anything to the plot. Not just that, but, just like in the last movie, Phillips’ taste in music is terrible and obvious. The songs they cover in Folie a Deux are either boring or just plain bad.
Joker Folie a Deux is just an exhausting watch full of perplexing choices and half-baked ideas, and I’m not watching a documentary to “get it.” Oh, and you have to REALLY pay attention in the end to “get” the “message.” I missed it the first time because it happens in a blurry haze in the background while the real action is in the foreground. My wife had to ask me about it, causing me to rewatch the ending, so that I could see it. Did I care? No. No one should care – about this ending or about this movie.
