The Worst Sin About Joker: Folie à Deux Is That It's Boring

No matter what critics thought of it, Todd Phillips' Joker was a sensation, winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, sparking reviews that either touted it as pure evil or peak entertainment, depending on who you asked, causing a stir about its politics and fandom and impact. If Joker went out with a bang — figuratively and literally — then Folie à Deux is more of a whimper from Phillips. It's a dull and lifeless motion picture that, at every turn, seems to barely want to exist.

Perhaps one can credit this to Phillips' clear contempt for his audience and critics alike, as well as the very character he's playing with, deliberately molding Folie à Deux as a courtroom drama in which the bulk of the film is about haphazardly recapping the last one. To quickly recap, Joker ended with its mentally ill protagonist, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), having killed six people and being arrested. While at Arkham, Joker meets Harleen "Lee" Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who is a huge fan of the Joker and inspires him to defend himself in his upcoming court case. And so he does exactly that, to terrible effect, though I hesitate to reveal more about the film for fear of spoiling whatever shred of a plot it has.

Of course, there's some romance and conflict there, but what is most shocking about Folie a Deux is just how simple it all is. The film is, ultimately, just about a court case. It is constantly distracted, to be sure, often indulging in scenes of Arthur and his fellow prisoners either sitting around doing nothing, occasionally singing, or being harassed by guards. Familiar faces like Harvey Dent and courtroom cameos from characters that existed in the first film pop up sometimes to remind you that this is a DC property and that Joker was a movie that happened, but the film exists in perpetual limbo, unsure what time or place or vibe it wants to give off. It has no interest in creating any kind of believable universe, be it a fantastical or insane one like Arthur's supposed mental state or one that cuts right through the bullshit and focuses on reality. Instead, it fixates on casually bringing up a ton of its supposed inspirations.

Its myriad references are astoundingly lazy, including clips from old Pepe le Pew-starring Looney Tunes shorts and outright featuring the patients at Arkham watching The Band Wagon, from which the song "That's Entertainment!" — featured often in Folie a Deux — is taken. The thing about references is that you have to manage to, if not surpass, then at least comment on the works, and Folie a Deux has no interest in that. The film may open with a cartoon short about how Joker and Arthur Fleck are "different people" à la Me and My Shadow, which is passingly featured in the film, but it never actually feels like the cartoon it's clearly aping and more like a half-finished Saturday Night Live sketch with faux-throwback animation.

One would never even guess that this segment was directed by none other than Sylvain Chomet, whose films The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist are some of the best animated and beautifully musical features of their time, as it exists as just another forgettable aside. The film's greatest flaw is this inability to commit to any of its stylistic flourishes and references. It isn't a compelling courtroom drama, coming across as deliberately dull; it barely functions as a comedy or a drama, uninterested in having a sense of humor or in Joker's mental state; and it's a musical that barely wants to be a musical, often shrugging through songs.

To give the film credit where it's due, the occasional actual fantasy musical sequence proves somewhat charming. There's an inkling that if Phillips had actually committed to using the gorgeous sets on sound stages that he introduces and quickly disposes of, Folie à Deux could have been a compelling musical. A dance to Gaga's original song, "Folie à Deux," which features the duo dancing together in the moonlight, is a breath of fresh air but almost immediately undercut when the film inanely cuts to Joker sitting in a cab listening to King Harvest's "Dancing in the Moonlight." That the film almost always shifts gears the moment it seems like it might commit to something, anything, feels intentional, like Phillips is actively baiting the audience to question why this exists at all.
Most of the songs featured in the film, from "That's Life" to "Gonna Build a Mountain," are barely more than throwaways, with characters in the background whistling or singing them and a single patient with a trumpet consistently playing them. At every turn, the film feels ashamed of what it is, even relegating one of the most charismatic performers of our era to a background player. Until now, Gaga could have never been accused of being forgettable, as her naturalism in A Star Is Born was instantly captivating, and her boisterous performance in House of Gucci was never boring.

Folie à Deux does an impressive job at somehow stripping her of this natural charisma, which only becomes more baffling when one considers that she could have easily leaned into the same kind of hamminess and sincerity that make her jazz shows and the old-timey Vegas lounge singer persona she cultivates there and which the film explicitly references in its musical choices as entertaining as they are. It's like Phillips deliberately tried to make Harley Quinn boring, which itself is a crime against humanity, but saddling a performer like Gaga with such a lackluster role is worse. If one is in it for her, they'd be better served by Gaga's recent album Harlequin, in which many of the featured numbers are performed with the fervor they deserve and presented with often lovely arrangements.

Honestly, it feels like a waste writing all of this when the film itself barely cares to exist. Everything about Joker: Folie à Deux feels like someone shrugging because they've been forced into a corner, with every performer looking as though they're sleepwalking through each scene. Every attempt at a twist or surprise is met with indifference, even by audiences, which have featured various couples dressed up in full Joker and Harley makeup who seemed deflated after the film, suggesting that even its biggest fans, its most hopeful viewers, will be disappointed by this one. You can cite "That's Entertainment!" as much as you want and act like you can do anything you want, but if you're not bringing that same entertainment, what's the point?

Joker: Folie à Deux. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, and Catherine Keener. Written by Scott Silver, Todd Phillips, and Bob Kane. Directed by Todd Phillips. 138 minuted. Rated R. Opens in theaters Friday, October 4; check showtimes at miaminewtimes.com/miami/movietimes.