MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Joker: Folie à Deux Review
In which a Batman is simply someone who hands out the bats at a baseball game.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2hr 18mins)
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Featuring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Synopsis: After the events of Joker, in which he murdered several people, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is incarcerated in Arkham. Around the same time he finds out he may receive the death penalty, he meets a beguiling fellow inmate who goes by the name of Lee Quinzel (Gaga).
Review: Folie à Deux, the musical that pretended it wasn’t a musical for some reason (box office receipts?), certainly attempts to do something different with both the characters it features and the comic book movie as a genre. Despite featuring arguably the most famous comic book character front and centre, the movie is at great pains to avoid any references to its origins (the credits even list the characters as coming from ‘DC’, without mentioning the word ‘comics’ or featuring the DC comics logo in its opening).
Whether heavily changing the characters and avoiding the truth that these are comic book characters first and foremost, gaudy and slippery and exaggerated, is enjoyed comes down to whether the viewer ‘wants things canon’ or if they’re open to reinterpretations.
In the opening moments of Folie à Deux, we find Arthur Fleck in the notorious E ward at Arkham. His mornings begin with emptying a phenomenal amount of urine from his bucket into a drain and being asked by every guard if he has a joke for them. These guards torment Fleck by simultaneously goading him about not being a superstar anymore, whilst treating him as special among other inmates.
Given a special pass to visit ward B, a somewhat cleaner, kinder part of Arkham, Fleck meets Lee Quinzel and the two hit it off immediately. He falls in love with someone who is from the same neighbourhood, metaphorically and literally, whilst she falls in love with the idea of Fleck in clown make-up.
Gaga is, frankly, wasted.
The dynamic between the Joker and Harley characters, imagined in so many different variations across seemingly endless different media, is switched up here. He is the lovesick puppy, she is the great manipulator, resourceful and happy to have her quarry fulfil her needs until she grows bored.
Phoenix gives a potentially great performance hampered somewhat by certain editing and directing choices, whilst Gaga is, frankly, wasted. The dynamism seen in A Star is Born, possibly the reason why she was cast here, is miles away from the milquetoast offering here. By the time she is given a chance to shine, the film has become a dull blend of inevitable songs (Fleck, reflecting my own thoughts, at one point presses his hands against Quinzel’s lips and begs her to stop singing) and close-up after close-up after close-up after close-up.
Stylistically, the film seems devoid of ideas, hoping to get by with high production values and great casting. However, these do not equate to compelling ideas. There’s a vaguely interesting sequence in which Arthur Fleck attempts to break away from the Joker persona, before being confronted by someone dressed in full Joker suit and make-up, dragging him into the streets before aimlessly driving away, hitting traffic with no way out.
Despite the film’s insistence, the most interesting character is Brendan Gleeson’s Jackie. Phillips makes the interesting decision of attempting to have Gleeson’s character, a thuggish Arkham guard, try to justify his actions to Fleck and himself. What could’ve been a one-dimensional character receives somewhat fleshed out moments, but unfortunately it’s not his show. Another story, another film, another review.
It’s surprising that someone with Todd Phillips’ filmography struggles to inject any humour whatsoever into Folie à Deux. Before Joker was made, Phillips seemed to be the perfect director for the subject: a blend of offbeat, sometimes nasty humour and characters that have been pushed to the edge by outside forces and their own shortcomings. This can be seen from The Hangover all the way to Due Date (a movie some would argue isn’t a comedy, but is in fact just a lot nastier than his previous work).
An opportunity has been missed.
However, Phillips doesn’t really do anything with the ingredients he’s been given. He spends his time instead pointing vaguely towards certain issues and themes like the treatment of abused people, before deciding not to really say anything about them beyond playing a Frank Sinatra song. If this is a reflection of his protagonist, an anarchist bereft of intelligence beyond an understanding that he feels the need to be loved, then Phillips has his tone spot-on. Folie à Deux behaves strangely. It seems to pity Arthur Fleck, before abandoning him to his fate because, as Ol’ Blue Eyes says, ‘That’s life!’
The feeling leaving the screening is one of depression and monotony. Perhaps Phillips was communicating what it was like to live in Arkham; perhaps he has simply made a film that features significant stretches that are boring. That it is different to every comic book movie is probably its greatest merit, but it’s only just entertaining enough to get by. It’s fine.
This isn’t helped by the feeling that an opportunity has been missed to make something great. This isn’t a comment on treatment of characters; stories have been told and re-told, with characters changing to suit the needs of the storyteller since humans sat around the campfire. The aforementioned ingredients are all there. It feels like Folie à Deux also has stretches of clear-cut pathos and, despite the clown make-up, feels so intensely real at times. So it’s frustrating in the sequences where things don’t work, where there isn’t a feeling of pity, or hatred, or fear; just the wait for the next inevitable song.
The lack of subtlety is, frankly, expected from someone with Phillips’ directing credits but lack of subtlety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it does require Phillips actually do something or say something with the cast of cartoonish characters he’s created.
The debate seems to be, however, that perhaps the film is too subtle with what it wants. Has it been intentionally made so viewers should hate it? Are we supposed to despise the protagonist, conflicting somewhat with the message from both this and Joker that Fleck is someone failed by a system? Is this debate all grade-A nonsense?
One thing’s for sure and that’s that Folie à Deux can’t seem to decide. Like Arthur Fleck, we see these events play out and they happen and then it ends.
Joker: Folie à Deux is in cinemas at time of writing.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or listen to the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
