Sometimes I sit on a bus and laugh maniacally because Joker won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2019. The oldest film festival in the world and bastion of arthouse cinema bowed to an American comic blockbuster. Arthur Fleck could never have thought up this outrageous joke.
The film by Hangover director Todd Phillips stumbled straight into the zeitgeist, provoked hysteria about its alleged danger and lured millions to the cinema. With lions, Oscars and billions in box office Joker marked the true peak of the superhero boom. Avengers: Endgame made more money, but Joker left a cultural footprint that went deeper than memes and merch.
Five years later, laughter is back on the Lido. Joker 2: Folie à deux is competing in Venice, this time supported by Lady Gaga, who sings a psychotic duet with Joaquin Phoenix. Can Joker 2 outdo its predecessor?
Arthur Fleck meets his biggest fan in Joker 2
In the first film, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) was introduced as a tormented loner who, through an act of violence, Icon of Gotham City’s popular anger But thousands of admirers did not change one fact: Arthur was alone.
In Joker 2: Folie à deux we meet him again in Arkham State Hospital, a psychiatric institution where he is awaiting his murder trial. It is a grey-blue, rainy, taciturn existence. Until his eyes fall on the inmate Lee Quinzel (Gaga). Then warm sunlight creeps into the rancid rooms. Lee likes to play with fire and, according to his own statements, has seen the TV film about the Joker around 50 times. A completely unproblematic combination of leisure activities.
The fact that the Joker shot a presenter in front of the cameras fills them with admiration rather than horror. For the first time, Arthur is able to communicate with a woman on the same level. But for superfan Lee, this works best with make-up. While Arthur’s lawyer (Catherine Keener) wants to save her client from the death penalty, his second identity forces its way back into his life. Or to put it more precisely: The Joker sings and tap dances in front of the camera.
Lady Gaga is a huge asset to the psycho musical
Music finds its way into Arkham in real and imagined moments. This was already set up in the first film. Arthur danced in front of the mirror like a musical performer who had lost his way in real life. After a while, however, the insight into Arthur’s nature was exhausted, despite Phoenix’s contortions.
Now he is given a partner for the duet, who provides the missing piece of madness for the choreography. With the help of pop music numbers Arthur really transforms into a complex personality in Joker 2: Folie à deuxForget the incel-tinged Taxi Driver derivative. Lady Gaga plays a crucial role in turning Joker 2 into a more complex, more sensitive film than its predecessor.
Arthur’s identities are more clearly revealed in his interaction with Lee, while Lady Gaga gives her role gives them just enough mystery to make them difficult to classify. This Harley Quinn or Lee is much more dangerous than Margot Robbie’s lovable antiheroine from the DCEU.
The only problem with the casting is that we are dealing with a film about Arthur Fleck. Lee fuels more curiosity than the script by Scott Silver and Todd Phillips is willing to satisfy. The Arthur Fleck show does not tolerate second leads and that does not necessarily make the film any better.
More from Venice:
Joker 2 is an ambitious sequel that shares a weakness of the original
Lady Gaga is still the best thing that could have happened to Joker 2 and you have to give Todd Phillips credit for his achievements. His second DC film delves deeper into the soul of the main character, changes genre in the middle and can be seen as a clear Rejection of the usual sequel mechanisms in blockbuster cinema understood. It would have been so easy to milk the Joker cow with a redux of the first film or to wallow in Bruce Wayne references. Phillips prefers to present a psychological musical with few locations that puts the popular villain Joker on trial and in doing so examines his own popularity.
However, one basic problem of the predecessor remains and it is not so easy to erase. Neither the script nor the craftsmanship can fully meet the expectations. The musical sequences are beautifully set, but are captured relatively sluggishly and statically. That looks good in trailers, but sometimes brings the film to a standstill.
What the Joker means for Gotham City and Leeremains underdeveloped in the script. Here, the film adds little to the original, which goes beyond an undefined hatred of those up there In short: Joker 2: Folie à deux is a good film about Arthur Fleck, but a bad film about the Joker.
Joker: Folie à deux is in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The film will be released in German cinemas on October 3rd.