The Badger

University of Sussex Students' Newspaper

Joker: Folie à Deux Review – A Dull Musical Experience

ByMatthew Knapp

Dec 2, 2024

This duet was flat-footed and dull, darling.

It’s felt like a lifetime since 2019’s Oscar-winning Joker. A film that caused widespread panic that audiences would follow in the Clown Prince of Crime’s footsteps of real-world violence. By this point, what more can be explored? 

Sadly, in that regard, director Todd Phillips doesn’t seem to have much more to say. Joaquin Phoenix returns as Arthur Fleck, awaiting his trial in Arkham Penitentiary, where he meets fellow troubled inmate Lee Quinzel (played by an underutilised Lady Gaga) leading to a dangerously chaotic romance. 

The decision to make this a musical intrigued me. But La La Land this is not. Instead, we are given a never-ending jukebox karaoke fest that Phoenix and Gaga each try their best to make entertaining. But the novelty wears off fast and leaves the film feeling remarkably flat and boring, even once it transitions to an off-brand and equally tedious courtroom drama. 

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Whilst the sequel’s cinematography, editing, and an incredible new score by Hildur Guðnadóttir imbues the same carefully crafted spectacle as its 2019 predecessor, Phillips’ attention to detail is lost amidst the monotony of Arthur’s internal conflict, an uninteresting and profoundly unengaging plot. Ultimately, a sense of weightlessness consumes the film. The narrative feels less like a series of revelations and more like a completely unflattering rewrite of the original Joker. The ensuing musical numbers therefore accentuate just how pathetic an impact the film leaves. 

Despite charming performances from Phoenix and Gaga, Joker: Folie à Deux fails to reach the heights of its equally derivative predecessor and as a result, leaves the audience wondering what exactly the point of it all was by the end. 

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