Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) 'Venice' Movie Review

In comic books, in the most successful cinematic interpretations, the Joker is more than just a villain, the prince of outcasts. If he does not have a name and he does not have a past, more than due to their insignificance, it is probably because digging too deep would be ill-suited to the icon of the smiling clown.

A past and a history, a mother and a father, and the mental vulnerability, realistically peculiar to the bearer who wears its shoes, leave too much room for emotions and facets that the personification of chaos should not have. In Todd Phillips’ “Joker” (2019), one of the biggest box-office hits in history, Joker has a name, Arthur Fleck, and quite a pathetic past. Yet, a life of abuse leads him to commit a brutal murder on a live national broadcast that, of the made and finished DC clown, should have signed the birth certificate.

In 2024, Arthur Fleck returns to the silver screen in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” bizarrely, Arthur and the Joker could not be more disjointed. Arthur Fleck carries on as a weak, frail, sick, and passive man, ready to turn on and off for the slightest input. The Joker, on the other hand, has reentered the world that belongs to him, that of the aspirational fantasy of the deranged.

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) 'Venice' Movie Review — A still from “Joker: Folie à Deux” (2024)

For a moment, Arthur has donned his mask and is now clamoring to put it back on; no one cares about him, on-screen and even off-screen (we, the audience). That is where the second act of Joker focuses on the purely imaginative and grotesquely utopian nature of the Joker, who is little more than a shadow, as spelled out in the brilliant opening animated sequence.

Although the project has been labeled, since its announcement, as a mistake, and by the news of being a musical featuring Lady Gaga, as a joke, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is an interesting deconstruction as much of an icon as audience expectations. Lady Gaga’s character, Lee, also reverses Joker’s comic book relationship with his personal harlequin (hence the name Harley Quinn), in a further split between the fiction and its flesh-and-blood persona.

Quite unexpectedly, the musical genre also fits this second chapter well, turning out in a series of numbers in which the characters sing, or think they do, in the reality of the story in which they are set. Arthur starts singing because Lee, to express herself, sings; the Joker, in his fantasy realm, sings because it amuses him (and, probably, for the pleasure of entertaining the audience).

The tracks, a selection of reimagined classics (among them, Gonna Build a Mountain by Matt Monro and What the World Needs Now is Love by Jackie DeShannon), fit neatly into the story and are excellently performed by the two main characters, both Lady Gaga as a professional singer and Joaquin Phoenix, who has already proven himself vocally in his masterful portrayal of Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” (2005). The cast is completed by a number of faces already present in 2019’s “Joker,” such as Zazie Beetz (who starred as Arthur’s neighbor), and by effective new roles, such as Brendan Gleeson’s performance as a warden at Arkham Prison.

Unfortunately, where Phoenix’s enormous talent allows him to bridge more limp script elements, Lee’s character has neither the three-dimensionality nor the acting performance to be particularly convincing. Still, Phillips’ utterly refined direction makes up for the dramaturgically weaker moments through a series of compelling sequences, often matching the carefully curated musical numbers (and elevated by Lawrence Sher’s stunning cinematography).

The technical department, sound, costumes, makeup, and sets are all excellent. And, even though the movie is undoubtedly loaded with flaws, “Joker: Folie à Deux” nonetheless has the plaudits of taking existing material, seemingly repurposing it, challenging viewers to cheer once again at the long-awaited arrival of the Joker just to disattend it. Indeed, the film’s courage lies in disregarding expectations, allowing the sleazy, pathetic Arthur to ‘sing’ with his own voice here for the first time.

Expected for an international distribution starting in the following weeks, this sequel is set to disappoint much of the fanbase of the first chapter as a schizophrenic, seesaw movie aimed to be divisive and unlikely to repeat the general acclaim of its predecessor. What is unquestionably remarkable is once again the performance of Joaquin Phoenix, on whom, again, the entirety of the picture rests. Competing for the Golden Lion, already won by “Joker” in 2019, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is, overall, one of the most exciting viewings of this festival. And it remains, in its merits and flaws, as to the delight of the Joker of the Land of Dreams, a truly memorable film.