‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ movie review: There is method in this musical madness from Todd Phillips

A still from ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ 

There is an aura of Shakespeare emanating from Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to Todd Phillips’ award winning Joker (2019). Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), the party clown and aspiring stand-up comic, institutionalised at Arkham State Hospital, awaiting trial for his five murders — including one of talk show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on national television — gives off a rather distinct Hamlet vibe.

Like the procrastinating Prince of Denmark, he is let down by his mum, which leads to him cutting a swathe of death and destruction. Though not dressed in inky clothes and stalking the ramparts of Elsinore, looking for the ghost of his father, Arthur in his motley colours and carmine smile, is good for plenty of soliloquies with different versions of himself in the multiverse of his mind.

It is two years since the events that put Arthur in Arkham, while his Joker persona incited the marginalised whom society had erased from the public consciousness to take to the streets demanding justice. The newly elected Assistant District Attorney, Harvey Dent, (Harry Lawtey) though determined to get Arthur to stand trial for his crimes, is not completely altruistic. As ambitious as they come, he knows the live telecast of the trial of the century, will definitely up his profile.

A still from ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ 

Arthur seems to be in his own worlds, being a model inmate playing along with guard Jackie Sullivan’s (Brendan Gleeson) jibes as well as the other inmates including one young man (Jacob Lofland), who is more than a little obsessed with Arkham’s most famous patient. On the way to meet his beleaguered lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), Arthur walks past the music therapy class and as his eyes light upon Lee (Lady Gaga), an instant connection is made.

When Lee tells Arthur she grew up in Arthur’s neighbourhood and her mother treated her abominably committing her to Arkham  (for setting fire to the family home), Arthur feels she is a kindred spirit. As the trial gets underway, Lee escapes from Arkham and orchestrates a groundswell of support for Arthur. Over the course of the trial, Arthur meets ghosts from his past including his neighbour Sophie Dumond (Zazie Beetz), who he believed he had a relationship with, Gary (Leigh Gill), a clown co-worker Arthur was kind to, and his social worker (Sharon Washington).

Though director Phillips had originally conceived Joker as a one-and-done deal, turning the sequel into a musical (on Phoenix’s suggestion apparently) is a masterstroke. As is the wonderful animation sequence in the beginning of the film; it is a whole new direction while keeping the disassociation, isolation and social commentary from Joker intact, and those lush jazzy musical numbers are a delicious aural treat. For those of us brought up on rich diet of song-and-dance numbers at the movies, it does not take a big leap to immerse oneself in eye-popping, gorgeously mounted reimagined jukebox favourites from composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (who won an Oscar for Joker).

A still from ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ 

While Phoenix’ skeletal appearance (the protuberant spine and jutting shoulder bones that look like wings) continues to be distressing, he is riveting as Arthur Fleck/Joker. Even as you want to look away from his wasted body, your eyes are dragged back to the ravaged face, the glittering eyes, one step away from chaos or kindness, and the trembling, exaggerated mouth. In contrast Lady Gaga is strangely subdued even if you do not line her performance against Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

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

Joker: Folie à Deux is currently running in theatres