Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Steve Coogan

Directed by Todd Phillips

DC / Warner Brothers – In cinemas now.

Two years after the murder of Murray Franklin on live television, Arthur Fleck is awaiting trial in Arkham State Hospital, until a seemingly chance encounter introduces the disruptive Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel into his life.

Back in 2019, Joker, the first instalment of Todd Phillips’s reinvention of the Batman supervillain story divided opinions starkly. One of our brethren at SFB Towers awarded the movie a scabrous 1/10; a counter view offered a more generous 9/10. Although I sat out of that particular fight, I was definitely in the 9/10 camp. I saw the movie twice in the space of a week and loved its King of Comedy/Network vibe playing homage to 70s and 80s auteurs such as Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese. And while I’ve never been a comic book superhero geek – with scant knowledge of the canon – I found its narrative tie-in to the Wayne family backstory immensely satisfying.

Five years later, Phillips and Joker star Joaquin Phoenix are turning the Marmite up to eleven in this genre-busting sequel.

After a Looney Tunes style recap of the original movie, we rejoin Arthur Fleck dosed up to the eyeballs, awaiting trial for multiple homicide. He’s regarded fondly by some of the guards, notably Officer Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson) who signs Arthur up for the mental facility choir where he meets fellow patient Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), and stopping his meds, a relationship develops centred around musical fantasies which leads our antihero back over the cliff of reason but perhaps to a more profound realisation.

Yes, I did say ‘musical fantasies’.

We are treated to full length renditions of For Once in my Life, If My Friends Could See Me Now, That’s Entertainment, Bewitched, When You’re Smiling, That’s Life, If You Go Away and many more, complete with dance routines and full orchestral arrangements. In the movie’s opening act I was up for this. It seemed to be a novel way into Joker/Arthur’s psyche, loaded with irony, and commenting on the blurred lines between social revulsion and populist spectacle.

My score-o-meter was pinging at a healthy 9/10 once again. I was sure that anyone loathing savoury yeast extract might be at the other end of the scale, but I admired the movie’s boldness, and Phoenix and Gaga were both commanding the screen in every shot.

However, as the movie trundled into its middle act, I could feel the arrow on my score-o-meter starting to droop. Instead of throwing light onto the characters and moving the story forwards, the songs start to grate. They are often delivered in a slow, ponderous style and midway into the action they are slowing things down and getting in the way. Ninety minutes in, and I’ve slipped down to a 7/10.

The final act is a real slog. By now I’m dreading another musical number starting up. People around me in the cinema are starting to browse on their phones. I’m normally policing such things with polite diligence but in all honesty I can’t blame them. To make matters worse, the story, such as it is, is entirely inward looking, and often repetitive. Aside from one or two canonical references, we lose touch with the Batman universe almost entirely, opting instead for a ponderous psychodrama. There’s quite an interesting idea struggling to get out as to the nature of identity, and the performative nature of evil, but it starts to feel like a lecture rather than a story, and takes forever because we keep stopping for more dreary singing.

As I became increasingly frustrated with the waste of a great idea, time seemed to telescope outwards, and by the end of an extremely long 138 minutes my score-o-meter had dipped to a limp 5/10.

Verdict: Joker: Folie à Deux is not a terrible film. It has some great scenes, even in its turgid third act, and, to be fair, it wakes up briefly for its final scene. I respect the boldness of the concept and the commitment of its stars, but it’s hard not to be frustrated by its many indulgent longueurs. 6/10

Martin Jameson

http://www.ninjamarmoset.com