Joker: Folie à Deux Review

 

Joker: Folie à Deux is a psychological thriller musical and the sequel to the 2019 hit film, Joker. It's produced by DC Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Joint Effort and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Joker: Folie à Deux is written by Todd Phillips and Scott Silver and directed by Todd Phillips.

The story is, it's been two years since the events of the last movie, and Arthur isn't the same guy he was before, he's not even telling any jokes. That all changes when he meets mental patient Harleen "Lee" Quinzel. Now with his trial coming up, Arthur once again decents into becoming the Joker.

Initial Reaction

When I first heard they were making a sequel, at first I was against it. But with Todd coming back it did give me some hope. Although having a musical in their did strike me as odd, but hey, sometimes experimentation is better than doing the same old same old.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The only slight issue I had, but it's a big slight issue is the story. Now everything revolving around the trial, that was some really good stuff. I was very much engaged with that part of the story. I even liked the whole love story with Arthur and Harley. Cause there was this whole mystery of does she love Arthur or his Joker persona? Where the slight issue comes from is the musical bits. Now I understand why there here. The movie is always bringing up how Arthur dangerously lives in a fantasy world. So it'd make sense he'd see things through a brighter lense even if things around him are not very good. However, they really could've cut some out. Some songs didn't really need to be there.

Pros

Alright let's get into the good stuff. One being the pacing. The film clocks in at two hours and eighteen minutes. But it didn't feel like that. It just smoothly goes by. Then we have the music, and by that I mean the score. Once again Hildur Guðnadóttir knocks it out of the park with her music. It still keeps some of those disturbing vibes from the first movie, but it also seems she added bits of sadness here. Which makes sense giving the movie's tone. Now let's move onto the cinematography. The look of this was absolutely stunning. It's not as dirty looking as the first, but that's fine, because whether the setting is taken place in the real world and/or in Arthur's head, the cinematography is top notch no matter what. The last thing I'll praise is once again Joaquin Phoenix's performance. I don't care if you liked this or not, you gotta admit whether good, bad, or decent, Joaquin did a tremendous job.

Now if you didn't like this movie, then that's perfectly fine. There's no rules saying you can't form your own opinion on cinema. But for me, I'll admit there are some problems. However, I feel as though the hate for this is vastly overblown. I won't say it's perfect but at the same time you won't see me jump aboard the hate train.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Oct 7th, for my post of George A. Romero's original Dawn of the Dead vs. Zack Snyder's remake of the same name. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.