‘Joker: Folly a Deux’ Movie Review: There’s Method In This Musical Madness From Todd Phillips

A still from ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’

From there the aura of Shakespeare emerges Joker: Folie à DeuxSequel to Todd Phillips’ award-winning the joker (2019). Arthur Flake (Joaquin Phoenix), party clown and aspiring stand-up comic, institutionalized at Arkham State Hospital, awaiting trial for five of his murders — including that of nationally televised talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) — gives a rather unique send-off. Hamlet vibe

Like the late Prince of Denmark, he is let down by his mother, who cuts him off to a slice of death and destruction. Although not wearing ink clothes and roaming the walls of Elsinore, Arthur, in his strange colors and carmine smile in search of his father’s ghost, is good for lots of soliloquies with different versions of himself in the multiverse of his mind.

It’s been two years since the events that led Arthur into Arkham, when his Joker persona inspired marginalized people whom society had erased from public consciousness to take to the streets to demand justice. The newly elected Assistant District Attorney, Harvey Dent, (Harry Lotte), though determined to bring Arthur to justice for his crimes, is not entirely benevolent. As ambitious as they are, he knows a live telecast of the trial of the century will surely raise his profile.

A still from ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’

Arthur seems to be in his own world, playing off guard Jackie Sullivan’s (Brendan Gleeson) jibes as a model prisoner, as well as other inmates, including a young man (Jacob Lofland) who’s a little too obsessed with Arkham’s most famous. On his way to meet his troubled lawyer Marian Stewart (Catherine Keener), Arthur walks past a music therapy class and an instant connection is made as his eyes light on Lee (Lady Gaga).

When Lee tells Arthur that he grew up around Arthur and that his mother treated him horribly in Arkham (for setting fire to the family home), Arthur thinks he’s a kindred spirit. As the trial continues, Lee flees Arkham and arranges a groundswell to support Arthur. During the trial, Arthur meets ghosts from his past, including his neighbor Sophie Dumond (Jazi Beetz), with whom he believed he had an affair, Gary (Lee Gill), a clown colleague Arthur was kind to, and his social worker (Sharon Washington). .

Although director Phillips originally conceived the joker As a one-and-done deal, turning the sequel into a musical (apparently at Phoenix’s suggestion) is a masterstroke. Such as the wonderful animation sequence at the beginning of the film; It’s a whole new direction while keeping isolation, detachment and social commentary from the joker Intact, and those deliciously jazzy musical numbers are a delicious listening treat. For those of us raised on a rich diet of song-and-dance numbers in film, it’s not a big leap to immerse ourselves in the eye-popping, score by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (who won the Oscar the joker)

A still from ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’

Although Phoenix’s skeletal appearance (the protruding spine and shoulder bones that look like wings) is constantly troubling, he’s unnerving as Arthur Flake/Joker. Wanting to look away from his decaying body, your eyes are drawn back to the ravaged face, the twinkling eyes, one step away from chaos or kindness, and the quivering, exaggerated face. Lady Gaga, by contrast, is strangely subdued even if you don’t line her performance against Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

While not as tightly plotted or layered as Joker, (Folie à Deux (The second half in particular could have done with some tightening and the plot is rather thin), there’s a certain joy in watching an actor at the top of his craft through cinematographer Lawrence Sher’s lazy takes.

Joker: Folie à Deux is currently playing in theaters