Mixed ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Reviews Highlight Lack of Excitement, Underused Lady Gaga in Sequel
Joker: Folie à Deux was revealed to the public Wednesday as Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his critical and commercial smash hit film Joker premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and the first reviews have already been released.
The Warner Bros. film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker, a role that secured Phoenix a best actor Oscar for his performance in the 2019 film. Joining the action for the sequel is Lady Gaga in the pivotal role of Harley Quinn, the Joker’s equally damaged companion in crime. In Joker: Folie à Deux, Arthur Fleck is institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as the Joker. It is there where he finds true love with Gaga’s Harley Quinn and also the “music that’s always been inside him,” according to previously released trailers.
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Joker: Folie à Deux also stars Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener. Zazie Beetz reprises her role from Joker. The sequel is set to hit theaters on Oct. 4.
Read on to see what the critics are saying about Joker: Folie à Deux, which is so far receiving mixed reviews.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney calls Folie à Deux “uneven,” writing that while Gaga’s performance is worthy of praise, the sequel falters by being “narratively a little thin and at times dull.” He notes that “Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver in the first Joker had the sturdy bones of not one but too Martin Scorsese films, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, on which to hang their story and set their tone. This one is built on more of a conceit than a solid story foundation.”
Jo-Ann Titmarsh, writing for London’s Evening Standard, agrees with Rooney’s take, noting that the film lacks a “frission of excitement” and a “sense of the madness taking control.” She adds that “despite its fascinating and complex main character, the film is ultimately dull and plodding, taking us nowhere, slowly.”
Meanwhile, Vulture‘s Allison Willmore feels that one of the main issues with the film is that Arthur “just isn’t that interesting despite how much effort Phoenix puts into rendering the character in exquisitely anguished mental and sunken-chested physical detail.” She also writes that even when Arthur “thinks he’s seizing control,” he becomes “a punching bag for the world, and more importantly, for the director, who subjects the character to so many indignities that he actually stops being pitiable and starts resembling the punch line to a long, shaggy joke.”
The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw opines that Gaga is underused in the sequel, despite the fanfare that her starring role has received, pointing out that the film’s “story as constructed doesn’t give [Gaga’s] character much of a chance at development.”
However, some critics thoroughly enjoyed Phillips’ fresh spin on the Joker and his paramour.
“Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film,” NME‘s Matthew Turner writes. “Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though—Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.”
The Independent‘s Geoffrey Macnab feels that Phillips was “clearly having fun in the director’s chair” with his “tour through at least a century of Hollywood” through musical numbers and references to various classics. He found that Phoenix’s performance “remains powerful and stirring,” allowing viewers to “care for Arthur despite his neediness and derangement.”
John Nugent at Empire also thinks that the musical moments helped the story, writing, “The unorthodox, unvarnished delivery of the songs from Phoenix and Gaga sells so much that a dialogue-light script does not — Burt Bacharach’s ‘Close To You’ has rarely been performed as chillingly — yet where the first film was relentlessly oppressive and bleak, there is an oddly hopeful tone here. Arthur’s performance of ‘For Once In My Life’, in particular, is a curious blend of quiet menace and truly heartfelt passion.”
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