My wife has a rating system she calls “Knitability.” Is the movie engaging enough to give it your undivided attention? Or can you knit to it the way one would knit to a brainless soap opera? Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” has a Knitability factor that pretty much goes off the scale. The film is so empty, plodding and repetitive that not only can one knit to it, you can also do your taxes, write a book proposal, play several hands of poker and learn slide guitar while it’s on and you won’t miss a thing. At the screening I went to, I couldn’t help noticing that several people took advantage of one of the film’s several dull musical numbers to take a restroom break. When they returned, I’m sure their seatmates told them, “you didn’t miss anything.”
Oh, but it’s all about the psychosis of Joker/Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) and now Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), how they fall in love and their “shared madness” (Folie à Deux translates into “madness of two”) as they plot to be together against all odds. And we’re supposed to root for them because they’re the “cool” version of mental illness, especially for hip film-bros who will go out thinking they just watched a takedown of “La La Land,” while Phillips would rather the viewer smile knowingly as he tries his damndest to honor “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” the same way he tried to gain cred with the original by referencing Martin Scorsese’s “The King Of Comedy” and “Taxi Driver.” The musical numbers in this film are meant to reflect the unhinged romanticism between Fleck and Quinzel, with each old standard repurposed as a juxtaposition. Phillips treats us (or tortures us) to this exercise every ten minutes. At least Damien Chazelle knows how to pace himself.
“Joker: Folie à Deux” wants the audience to share in Fleck and Quinn’s madness as well by trying to be unpredictable. The first half or so takes place in (where else?) Arkham Asylum, where Fleck has been locked up since killing seven people in the first film. Since then, there has been a book and TV movie based on his life and he remains a cult hero, especially to Quinzel, whom he meets in the asylum. They fall in love instantly. She gets released. He has a trial coming up that she gets to attend and be as big a part of the media circus as he, since they were photographed together trying to escape Arkham while singing their hearts out. Much of the second half of the film is the trial itself, a maddening and lazy narrative choice for a movie that tries to surprise the viewer. There’s no mystery to this trial. It’s all in service of rehashing old events and so that Fleck can fire his lawyer (Catherine Keener), represent himself and take the trial off the rails when the script demands it.
The point of all of this is not to shed light on mental illness and society’s unwillingness to empathize with those who suffer from it, thereby helping to create a culture of violence and horror, as many defenders of the original pointed out upon its release. The point of “Joker: Folie à Deux” appears to be that we marvel once again at Phoenix's physical presence, ticks and delivery and Gaga’s willingness to go along for the crazy ride. While I greatly admired her performance in “A Star Is Born,” here she seems to be just insurance for the otherwise flat musical numbers. With Phoenix as her co-star in these scenes, I cannot imagine anyone, aside from Lady Gaga completists, wanting to own the soundtrack to this. Even if you're knitting to this film just to listen to it, it’s a good bet you'll want to watch something else quick.
The other point, of course, is to praise Phillips for his departure from doing frat-boy comedies and venturing into the territory of artistic growth. Some went along with that at first. Here, it becomes painfully obvious that he’s only about the exercise in referencing and showing off with single-take shots, not the context or depth. When someone of authority asks Fleck or Quinzel a serious question or when a violent act occurs, Phillips’ only tool in his toolbox is to undercut it with a methodical dolly-in shot on one of the characters, as music begins and they slowly begin a rendition of something like “Get Happy.” or “What the World Needs Mow Is Love”.
Even if I might not agree with that assessment of the original “Joker” I mentioned earlier. I can at least appreciate where that point of view comes from and I will contend it was a different way of cinematically approaching a comic book character. Here, that same approach is just being regurgitated with only a tired gimmick to differentiate itself. “Ironic” musical numbers are no longer bold today, especially not here, where they act as a crutch and a means for the director to get more attention. The only kind of attention I can give Phillips is a bit of side-eye at his treatment of the character Gary Pudddles (Leigh Gill), a dwarf on the witness stand who becomes the butt of short jokes that Phillips clearly hasn’t outgrown since his “Hangover” days.
By the end, we’re left with nothing. Nothing but a one-note musical, a bland trial film and a predictable ending that left viewers giving the film polite-at-best applause as the credits rolled. The film exists to be talked about endlessly on Twitter/X, with fans isolating their favorite shot as a “big swing” (isn't it great that we don’t have bad movies anymore? Just movies that take big swings), but here’s hoping that “The Substance” and “Megalopolis” remain at the forefront of discussion and discourse (as they are right now, as I write this) by the time this comes out. They are both far more worthy. “Joker: Folie à Deux” wants so badly to be noticed for what it presents and how it presents it, almost as if that’s the sole purpose for a movie existing at all. The “look at us! We’re crazy!” factor might’ve worked on some the first time around (not me), but many viewers will wish they had something else to occupy their time as this one rolls on and on and on.
Vous pouvez certainement tricoter avec ce film. (thank you, google translate)
Rating: *1/2