By Bob Grimm
With Joker (2019), director Todd Phillips gave us a very popular movie that was a rip-off of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. Not an homage … a rip-off.
The results were big box office, massive critical acclaim and two Academy Awards (give me a break), one of which was for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance. This all happened while I sort of sat in the corner stewing, feeling very alone regarding my dislike of the film. For me, the thought of a sequel was underwhelming.
Now comes that sequel, Joker: Folie a Deux—and Todd Phillips, once again, is ripping somebody off, this time Pennies From Heaven (1981). In that film, Steve Martin and the rest of the cast brilliantly lip-synched the musical interludes of oldies standards, reflecting what the characters were going through. In Folie a Deux, Phoenix and Lady Gaga sing with their own vocal cords, attempting something identical in many ways to Pennies.
And it’s awful. It’s a slog—a desperate, miserable slog that takes a meager, razor-thin storyline and pads it with useless, boring, invasive musical numbers that do absolutely nothing to propel the narrative. Phillips is no auteur; he makes fun schlocky movies every now and then, but when he tries to get heady or existential, bad things happen.
The action picks up after Joker, with Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) sitting in Arkham Asylum awaiting trial for the five known murders he committed in the first movie. (He actually killed six, including his mom.) So, yeah, this isn’t just a lame musical; it’s also a lame courtroom drama, where, you guessed it, Fleck will morph back into the Joker and wind up defending himself à la Ted Bundy.
Gaga’s turn as Lee Quinzel, transforming into Harley Quinn, is as sleepy as it gets. She, like Fleck, is in the asylum, and she has a big ol’ crush on Arthur. This sparks a few musical numbers that go absolutely nowhere. You are seriously blowing it when you have Lady Gaga in your movie, and she’s singing—and audiences are snoring. Her role feels tacked-on, a sorry attempt to raise awareness with star power. The endeavor completely lets her down.
Phillips, who contributed on the script, is trying to do some riffs on celebrity, cults, demagogues and so on. Fleck’s journey is supposed to represent something deep for a comic-book movie that isn’t really a comic-book movie. This is a wannabe drama, based on a comic-book character, that tries to tell you how deep it is at every turn, and it’s annoying on too many levels to count.
Question: You have retained the talents of Lady Gaga, so why not have her write some actual songs for your $200 million musical? Why rely on predictable standards that are repurposed and shoehorned into the storyline? Why not make a real musical with original lyrics and create something truly groundbreaking? Because this is lazy, show-off filmmaking, that’s why. A movie like that would take 10 times the work and much more time. But this is a Joker movie, so butts will be in seats anyway.
Well, the joke is on Warner Bros., because audiences didn’t fall for it. Fanboys and surface fans alike saw a ruse and stayed away in droves. I went to the (empty) theater because I had to. If you stayed home, I don’t blame you. The trailers for this one looked like shit, and the eventual film is, indeed, shit.
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