Joker: Folie a Deux
Joker: Folie a Deux, one of the most anticipated films of 2024, can be summed up in one word: confusing. The 2019 film Joker was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning 2 of them, and was the first R-rated film to ever surpass $1 billion dollars at the box office. So once Joker: Folie a Deux was announced, expectations were very high. And when it was announced that Lady Gaga would be playing the role of Harley Quinn, expectations soared to an even higher level. Perhaps that’s part of the reason for my disappointment.
Let me start by saying straight up that this is not a Joker film. The main character even admits this late in the film when he proclaims that he is not the Joker and that he has been Arthur Fleck the entire time. The 2019 film would beg to differ as he was, very clearly, the Joker in that film.
This film was part prison drama, part musical and part “hey, our society sucks”. But it didn’t pull any of them off. The musical side of it felt very forced. In a film that felt very dark and depressing, characters were smiling and dancing. None of us needed a Joker film to find out that Lady Gaga can sing. And truthfully it didn’t even do that well, which is awfully hard to screw up.
I could go on and on about reasons this film disappointed. Simply put, it couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. There’s a reason you don’t see singing and dancing in a film like Seven. And there’s a reason you don’t see serial killers in a film like Singing in the Rain. Those two things don’t mesh very well.
If you want to see a Joker film, I suggest you save your money and re-watch the 2019 version and forget this newer version ever existed.
Score- 3 out of 10.
Lead Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
