‘Joker: Folie A Deux’: Venice Review

Dir: Todd Phillips. US. 2024. 138mins

Can two demented people with a track of their coronary heart discover love? Joker: Folie A Deux pairs Gotham’s Clown Prince Of Crime with Harley Quinn, leading to an formidable sequel whose huge swings largely become misses. Half musical, half courtroom drama, this follow-up to the 2019 Oscar-winning sensation additional explores the fractured thoughts of the murderous Arthur Fleck, however with out the perception that made the unique movie so engrossing and unsettling. Joaquin Phoenix demonstrates once more his willingness to take dangers — on this case, singing alongside the way more technically expert Woman Gaga — however a efficiency that was as soon as so attuned to his character’s fragile psychological state is, in Folie A Deux, plagued by acquainted prospers.

Lukewarm chemistry

Warner Bros. unveils Folie a Deux at Venice, the place the unique took house the Golden Lion on its technique to grossing $1.1 billion worldwide. Gaga solely provides to the business firepower of this highly-anticipated sequel, which opens within the UK and US on October 4, though the image’s musical trappings may barely dampen advance enthusiasm. However, Folie a Deux appears poised for sturdy field workplace.

Set two years after Joker, which ended with failed stand-up Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) killing talk-show host Murray Franklin dwell on air, this follow-up focuses on Arthur’s homicide trial. His lawyer Maryanne (Catherine Keener) desires to show that her consumer was below psychological duress as a way to spare him from the electrical chair, however Arthur appears extra involved in fellow prisoner Lee (Gaga). Rapidly realising that she is as disturbed as he’s — she has a penchant for random arson — Arthur falls for Lee, who has been obsessive about him since he assassinated Murray.

Give Folie a Deux credit score for being as daring because the 2019 movie, with returning director and co-writer Todd Phillips plunging us again into the darkness of early-Nineteen Eighties Gotham Metropolis. Reuniting with lots of his Joker collaborators — most significantly, cinematographer Lawrence Sher and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir — the filmmaker makes an attempt to make a sequel that’s not a carbon copy of the earlier image however, moderately, represents a stylistic shift that seeks to interrogate its frighteningly unwell protagonist.

A part of that technique entails incorporating musical numbers into the narrative. Some are fantasy sequences which occur inside the characters’ minds, whereas others merely discover Arthur and Lee breaking out into nonchalant singing in the midst of an in any other case conventional dramatic scene. Not surprisingly, Gaga shines throughout these set items, whether or not sweetly crooning ‘(They Lengthy To Be) Shut To You’ or belting ‘Gonna Construct A Mountain’ in amped-up R&B/gospel mode. However Phoenix struggles. To make certain, his frailer singing captures Arthur’s brittle psyche however, when his character is meant to have a cathartic second — resembling throughout a fiery rendition of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s ‘The Joker’ — this gifted, weak actor merely doesn’t have the chops to make the track galvanising.

However the blame additionally goes to Phillips, who exhibits little ingenuity in his staging. Neither euphoric nor edgy, sentimental or sarcastic, the musical sequences reside in an unsatisfying, detached center floor, by no means zeroing in on the emotional undercurrents of those fashionable songs that are meant to sketch out Arthur and Lee’s mad romance. This lack of spark is simply as obvious in Phoenix and Gaga’s non-singing scenes. As convincing as Gaga is as this unstable girl destined to turn into his fabled soulmate Harley Quinn (portrayed by Margot Robbie in different DC movies) she and her costar’s chemistry is simply lukewarm. In the meantime, Phoenix, who performed Arthur in Joker as a traumatised failure falling to items with such tenderness and volatility, merely repeats these mannerisms right here, to far much less commanding impact.

Opening with a Looney Tunes-style animation sequence designed by Triplets Of Belleville auteur Sylvain Chomet, Folie A Deux tries commenting on social points, together with our society’s fixation on mass murderers. Sadly, as soon as the movie turns into a colorless courtroom piece, Phillips has hassle propelling the narrative ahead. There’s a thriller on the story’s centre — does Lee love delicate Arthur or does she actually love the devilish Joker? — however the movie wobbles each time it takes a stab at investigating these warring personae inside his damaged soul.

Folie a Deux’s stunning ultimate sequence suggests a brand new mind-set about Joker’s cinematic legacy — in addition to the ways in which violence begets violence. However the place the unique Joker stays a shocking exception — that uncommon blockbuster with emotional shading, grownup themes and a real sense of grandeur — this sequel fails to remain on the beat.