PREMISE
Struggling with his dual identity, failed comedian Arthur Fleck meets the love of his life, Harley Quinn, while incarcerated at Arkham State Hospital.
THE GOOD STUFF
PHOENIX – Obvious things should be pointed out first and foremost. Let’s not get it twisted. Joaquin Phoenix still absolutely owns this role. Whether he’s singing or not, his presence as the Joker is very large and imposing on screen. In this movie, we see the dichotomy between the Joker and Arthur Fleck more than in the first film. In some ways, this is more of a character evaluation of Arthur than it was in the first film. And given all the musical stuff that’s going on here, it wouldn’t be too crazy to say that this is the more complex portrayal of this character if we’re comparing the two films.
Phoenix is in the Hall of Fame, we all know this. Whether or not this is his particular signature character can be left up to debate. But you cannot deny how great he is in this film and has always been in depicting tortured characters for his entire career. He is still HIM. Let’s not lie about that now.
TODD PHILIPS – There are quite a few reasons to detest this movie (which I will get to in a second), but even still, we have to acknowledge that the musical sequences and just some of the shots that are shown in this film show Philips to be an elite director. Not the best in the game for anything like that, but a director who can direct a tent pole better than most. That’s what this was intended to be; it looks and feels like something worth a $200 million budget.
LEIGH GILL – I never considered the first Joker a masterpiece. Still, this movie recalls many instances that established that first movie as outstanding (The steps, the mirror dance, the shot of his face after he kills Murray on TV). The thing I did not expect was the confrontation that happened between the Joker and the man that he spared, Gary Puddles. This is the movie’s best scene, and Gill crushes it here. This was a heartbreaking scene, and it comes at a time in the film where I was rolling my eyes so much at s*** that already happened in the film I thought my eyes would get stuck in the back of my head. This scene was emotionally resonant enough for me to get out of that funk…and then the movie just pulled me back into the bull****.
THE BAD STUFF
THE MUSICAL STUFF……………………………………………………
I just wanted it to make sense.
Given the movie that came before this, I wanted to see how something like musical numbers would make sense in this world. And I have to admit, in the beginning of the movie…. They were kind of pulling it off. The way they Incorporated the scenes made sense logically, and for a while, I couldn’t help but admire how slick they were pulling the whole musical thing off when it came to this story. It was admirable that they used these musical numbers and sprinkled them here and there throughout the film. Then, around the midpoint of this film, the musical numbers stopped being sprinkled in… and began to be poured on gallons and gallons at a time.
I do feel that every audience member who tries to dissect this movie will come to the same conclusion that the musical numbers are the things that were cared about the most, and the story came in at a distant second place.
THE UGLY STUFF
“LEE” – The biggest disappointment of this film is Lee. Contrary to what you may believe, Lee is not a supporting character in this film. Lee is the co-leading performance. The Joker could be considered the main character in this film because of the fifteen or so minutes of screen time he has at the beginning and the five or so minutes he has at the end. Lee is overwhelmed in every musical sequence and is the most dominant personality between the two co-leads. She seems to be front and center at least half the time compared to her co-lead.
Oh, and she’s also one note as f***. Just because this is supposed to be a movie with a more serious tone than the first suicide squad doesn’t mean that Lady Gaga’s interpretation of this character has any more depth to her than Margot Robbie’s performance as this same character in ANY DCEU film.
THIS F****** ENDING – As we round down 2024, I can’t help but think that this might be the year where we’ve had more BS endings to films than in recent times. And in a year filled with BS endings, this one is quite astonishing in its execution.
Internet people who are comic book fans love to state that a movie or filmmaker says “f*** you to the fans” whenever they feel their movies are unsatisfactory to their liking. And normally, I’ve always taken that as being overdramatic or overblown. But oh my goodness, this ending.
It’s not a f*** you to the fans of DC comics or the characters themselves…this ending feels like a f*** you to the fans of the first movie. And that’s very unique in its pettiness. There was no reason for this film’s last 10 to 15 minutes to play out the way it does.
**************
To say the very least, this is a profoundly disappointing film. I don’t feel it’s a cash grab. They thought they could hit one out of the park by switching the format from what came before. It’s a bold choice; it’s a hard swing for the fences and doesn’t happen here. There is such a narrative leniency in these musical numbers in the last half of this film that it exposes the fact that there wasn’t much more meat on the bone left when it came to this particular story. This movie could have easily been 90 minutes long and got its point across in the same way without missing anything.
Ultimately, I’m shockingly confused. That’s the best way I can describe it. I’m not saying that the first Joker was a masterpiece of Cinema or anything like that.
What I can say with relative certainty is that I’ve never seen a bad sequel of any movie (that was not a comedy) make the previous film look SO much better by being SO much worse. Not ever.
JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX is in theaters now
