Joker: Folie à Deux...Thanks, I Hate It!
A good actor cannot save a bad movie.
Don't get me wrong, I love musicals, I was a theatre major after all. But "Joker: Folie à Deux" was a haphazard mess. The story seemed to be heading in the right direction, starting almost seamlessly after the first Joker concluded. We meet Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), two years later, serving time in prison for the five murders he committed. He soon meets Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn or Lee Quinzel, and the two begin a relationship.
As he returns to prison after his singing class with Lee, Fleck almost randomly bursts into song. If I didn't have prior knoweldge to this film being a musical, I would've been dying of laughter at this point. Okay, that's not true. I was still hunched over, cackling along with my best friend as we stared at the absolute cringeness on the screen. And Joaquin is a fairly good singer. He portrayed Johnny Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line", although Cash wasn't much of a singer himself...I'm losing my train of thought.
And Lady Gaga is a great actress. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in "A Star is Born" (2019) and won a Golden Globe for playing the Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel (2016). As for "Joker", the film really lost me during these random song numbers that did not help the story along. I felt Gaga was just playing herself and that's not her fault. If Todd Phillips (writer/director) could decide what his film actually was, then maybe we'd be cooking with gas. Why couldn't he have just let Gaga be an actress as she added a level of grit and depth to the character of Harley Quinn? And if music is truly necessary for this film, I believe one number should remain: 'Gonna Build a Mountain'.
This performance saved the film's musical portion and in my humble opinion, just this one number would've been enough. It drove the plot along and it was fun. Plus Joaquin got to show off his dancing skills again. Although painted as a killer clown, he remains extremely sexy. Because he's an amazing actor. I say give him a second Oscar for his performance because he can do no wrong in my eyes. Meanwhile, having this one random musical number could've provided the right amount of camp and weirdness that Joker craves. Think about "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", did that movie need a musical number? No. But do we love it for having one? Absolutely.
As for the film itself, I thought Gaga's Lee to be an extremely unlikeable character. She gave Fleck every glimmer of hope for a happy ending only to crush him in the end. What I did like was Arthur's trial. Catherine Keener was a great addition to the film as Fleck's lawyer and when Fleck fires her, suddenly deciding to represent himself, Phoenix's comedic chops came out in full force. However, after being found guilty of murder, suddenly, this big explosion happens, blowing up the courthouse (but we never find out who did it). Arthur escapes, rescued by Joker fans protesting outside. That's an unexpected twist right? Well...just after being rescued, Fleck jumps out of the protestor's car to find Lee, who dumps him on the famous Joker steps. Then, the cops find him and send him back to jail. SO WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ANY OF IT? He escapes only to be found two seconds later? Oh and he's stabbed to death in jail and the movie ends. Bummer.
Like I said, Joaquin is a phemonal actor, but a good actor cannot save a bad movie.
4/10.
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