“Sing Hallelujah, come on, be happy.” Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga)
“Get ready for the judgement day.” Harleen Quinzel, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix)
Who would have thought that the sequel to the original Joker, a multiple Oscar-winning revisionist DC comic book movie, could be anything but joyous? After all, Arthur Fleck, aka Joker, is institutionalized at Arkham Reformatory and awaiting trial for five murders.
Yet, writer director Todd Philips and writers Scott Silver and Bob Kane, with the stellar Phoenix, manage to elicit our sympathy for the murderer. Harley Quinn makes sure Arthur finds love and music to buoy him and us to let the awkward element of a musical bring the humanity out of Arthur.
Not a frame of the more than two hours is wasted on frivolous crime or tears. As Arthur endures the accusations of manipulation and bloodthirst, we see him struggle to explain the duality within himself, which he seemingly doesn’t acknowledge anyway. Not until the denouement do we hear from him his analysis of his duality.
Joker: Folie a Deux has multiple moments of confusion about Arthur’s mix of evil and sometimes good, especially when he’s on the run with Harley, where, a ’la La La Land the couple break into song and dance, eg., they sing and dance Come on, be Happy on the way to his trial and a suspicion he will not avoid the gallows despite his supportive attorney’s (Catherine Keener) belief in his deserving sympathy.
As a cultural allegory, this jukebox musical parallels our modern awareness of the multiple sides of any one personality, Jekyll and Hyde so to speak. It also points to the way we accept and foment inhumane tyranny in our political leaders, destructive riots, and mass shootings in ourselves. It is almost a given that society is ready at any moment to implode with its own mean affection for evil or crazies at least.
Joker: Folie a Deux is one of the best movie experiences this year.
Joker: Folie a Deux
Director: Todd Phillips (The Hangover)
Screenplay: Phillips, Scott Silver (The Fighter)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), Lady Gaga (House of Gucci)
Rating: R
Length:2h 18m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com