Joker: Folie à Deux was already a film that had garnered a certain amount of negative response from reviewers similar to Megalopolis. Similar to that film I went to see if it was as bad as the reviewers were saying and unlike Megalopolis I can say that I don't agree with them. I understand why they don't like it but I left the cinema feeling good about it. Set two years after the events of the first, Arthur is being put on trial for killing 5 people and is being 'supported' by Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga).
HONOURABLE MENTION
Continuity Issue
Fleck is charged with killing five people but admits killing his mother which would make it six but in fact it should be seven as the woman he speaks to at the end is implied to have died because of the blood footprints. I took it to mean that she died so that would make seven murders but if it isn't a continuity error then she's just been injured in which its slightly undermines the ending.
GOOD POINTS
Lady Gaga is quite good
Bearing in mind that Gaga isn't known for her acting and also isn't the Academy Award Winner (as well as the Movie Addict Award Winner), she was surprisingly good. I say surprisingly because she has shown in A Star is Born and House of Gucci that she can act and she does well as Lee. It would have been nice to have her in a bit more of this so the character could grow a bit more than she did.
Phoenix & Gaga have good chemistry
The partnership of Phoenix and Gaga was a big selling point of the trailers and considering they spend a large chunk of the movie together, the chemistry is there and they work very well together. The chemistry between Phoenix & Gaga is as strong as it is for Quinn & Fleck.
Nice redemption for Fleck
By the end of the film, Fleck has pretty much got Joker out of his system. In his scene in front of the jurors he says as much and Fleck has undergone a nice contrast to the anger he felt when he shot Murray Franklin. It was subtle and it wasn't until the very end when he is dying that it occurred to me that this is what they were doing. It was very clever writing and hats off to the writers.
Was never bored of the film
At 2 hours and 18 minutes, this film is exactly the same running time as Megalopolis. One felt a lot longer than the other and this film did not feel long. The story was interesting, the performances were strong and when those two things come together time flies. Six days since Megalopolis and both are great examples of how to utilise a decent running time.
Brendan Gleeson and Steve Coogan
I knew Steve Coogan was in this film as he featured in the trailer and whilst I would have liked him to be in it more, it was a good performance and it was in a nice scene where Arthur basically calls out the media for only being interested in the headlines and not the actual story. Brendan Gleeson is always great in whatever he is in and he continues that in this as Jackie the guard who is your typical scumbag guard but when Gleeson does it, he does is to the degree that you still like him despite what he does.
BAD POINTS
Felt very disjointed
Despite the fact I was never bored, the musical moments did make the whole film feel disjointed and makes the fact that I enjoyed it as much all the more remarkable. The film is a musical although the people involved seemed reluctant to call it a musical its not structured like a musical because normally scenes build up to a song whereas the songs seem to be chucked in whenever it suited the director.
Songs felt amateurish
Musicals have songs that are created specially for a film and flow in nicely with the film but they didn't sound professional even the Lady Gaga songs didn't come across as particularly great. I think that using songs in films have been made popular because of Guardians of the Galaxy but they have to be used well and they didn't in this case.
Phoenix cant sing
Joaquin Phoenix cant sing at all and is a far better actor than singer. He is bad when is sings on his own but when he is next to a professional Grammy Award winner then he sounds like he is doing karaoke at a bar. I applaud the fact they didn't try and get someone else to sing for him but it did remind me of Russell Crowe in Les Miserables.
Not enough Gaga
Even though we get a good amount of Lady Gaga, due to how good her performance it would have been nice to her more of Gaga. Never thought I would write that but its true and it may have meant that we got less of Phoenix singing. She seems to be in it a lot in the first half of the film but as the court scenes take over then we seemed to see less of Gaga.
OVERALL
This was a good film. Not a perfect one but one that I thought was generally very good. It's clear that they didn't really want to make this sequel but when the first made so much money and won an Oscar, then it was either do it yourself or get someone else to make it and hope for the best. Phillips was at least smart enough to do it himself and that is why it was better than it probably had any right to be. If this is the last time that Joaquin Phoenix plays this character then that's fine but if they carry on with someone else (like they hinted at the end) then that would be fine too. Joker 2 isnt as bad as some people would have you beleive but I think there is enough to like about it and would be happy to watch again.
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