Joker Folie à Deux: As Bad As Everyone Says? - Review and Full Breakdown

We're taking a look at the newest and most controversial movie: no, no Megalopolis for today, because we're somehow looking at an even worse film! Joker 2: Folie à Deux is one of the worst films I've seen this year. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Harry Lawtey: no amount of star power can save this film from oblivion. Why is it so bad? Well, how about we talk into all the areas this MUSICAL MOVIE fails as both a musical, and a movie?

All clips belong to Joker: Folie a Deux and Joker, and are being used in accordance with fair use for the purpose of transformative criticism and review

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Clips Used:

[ReggieMobley]

It took me a moment to see you were dressed as the Joker, and not a formal male Velma. Perhaps it’s that color combo that’s cursed.

[hada__]

Too much of a musical for Joker fans, not enough of a musical for musical fans. This demented middle ground is a nightmare.

[GregBlackmanMusic]

Even though I agree it's not well portrayed, Arthur falling hard for the first woman to show him any physical affection after a lifetime of being starved of physical touch from anyone except his abuser was one of the parts I found most believable. I've seen it happen in real life. Often to the exact kind of people who found The Joker to be a revelation about themselves.

[airplanes_aren.t_real]

Part of me wishes producers stopped getting directors that hate their movies

[nothingisawesome]

its strange that the first one has more dancing than the musical one

[Pebkio_Nomare]

They could've made a *really* good movie about Harley Quinn. A prologue that's a time lapse of her witnessing the events of the first movie. Then we follow her activities getting into Arkham, experiencing *her* mental image of the Joker. Make him bigger than he ultimately is because that's how she see's him. Telling him lies, that we know from the jump are lies, because she views him as intimidating but desires to be close. You can still hit the same plot lines of this movie, but present it from her perspective. The only scenes the Joker are actually in are the ones where he's with Harley Quinn. And in them he's acting like the Joker. Extremely confident... his laughing is not desperate and forced, but mirthful and on purpose.

An image she has which is shattered by the ending twist. A twist that hits harder because we've spent the movie only seeming him as the Joker caricature.

And leave the court room scenes out. Just have Quinn learn from the news about crazy nonsense. Oh my god, it would've been really great commentary to present news media as hyping up the antics of "The Joker" only to reveal, at the end, that it's just Arthur Fleck in over his head. And Harley Quinn bought into the media's portrayal, built up her new identity around that portrayal, only at the end to learn that Arthur Fleck isn't the person she thought. Have her interact with his supporters slowly becoming their commander due to her closeness with the Joker, portray them as believing that he's going to be the force of chaotic change they want him to be, but in the end he's really not all what they think. But they refuse to believe and, in the end, are shown latching onto the replacement Joker that killed Arthur Fleck. There's a hint that Harley knows better, but... eh, she wants a Joker in her life.

[GillianRosheuvel]

"People should've been upset that they made a live action Beauty and the Beast movie." Facts.

[timekillerstudios]

It feels off having Harley Quinn being the manipulator when a huge part of her relationship with the Joker is that he manipulated her and was abusive to her

[BrianHartman]

To be fair, from what I understand, the bad singing on Phoenix's part was intentional. Supposedly (because I haven't seen the movie) Lady Gaga sings intentionally badly, too. They're not singing as Gaga and Phoenix. They're singing as Fleck and Quinzel.

To your point, though, that's part of the problem. If you're going to make it a musical, the singing has to be good. Having bad singing -- even if it's intentionally bad -- isn't going to win you any friends.

[nickdoesnotlikepie]

My favorite line was when he said "I'm the joker, baby!"

[michaellocher]

My favorite part was when he said "it's jokin' time" and then he jokered to the extreme

[Nikc]

Lady Gaga is a rare case where a good actress (yeah, you read it right) made bad material work. Her character is horrid and badly written but she played it well and is a bonus that in this musical she obviously shines through.

And yet, some folks wholeheartedly believe she's the sole responsible of the movie's downfall.

[akeemmorrison]

Gen Z doesn't hate sex scenes. But most sex scenes are like the raining scene, like you mentioned. Completely unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot.

[louvivian]

"if you liked the flash as a kid you're probably gay now" PAT HOW THE FUCK DID YOU KNOW THAT?!

[MarxistMomentum]

A scene where the Joker gets SA'd so brutally that he renounces the Joker persona feels like a scene made by someone who absolutely hated the first Joker movie and hated that version of the Joker for some reason. Why? The first movie was so good. DC had a goldmine with the first Joker movie. At this point, I would understand if someone thought that DC had an aversion to making good movies.

[Werewolf.with.Internet.Access]

Joaquin Phoenix didn’t want a sequel

The director didn’t want a sequel

F*ckin’ WE didn’t want a sequel

But the execs wanted a third yacht, so a lackluster sequel we get

[isabelleboivin]

About Harley "not understanding" that Arthur will get the chair if he's okay, I really think she want that : latter when she said that they lost the "fantaisy", I feel like she wanted him to die so she'll have her perfect little tragic story to tell.

[AW.]

The best harley quinn portrayals are ones where she's independent of joker. We've adapted their relationship enough.

[tjgreco]

22:46 It wasn't even a gay kiss for LeFou, he literally just danced with a man on screen for two seconds. 😭

[ChocoTacoHouse]

I loved the Flash when I was young, and yes, I am gay, therefore I'm personally attacked and you will be hearing from my lawyer