Perspective

SPOILER WARNING

‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’ though No 1. at the box office, has not made it there for positive reasons. The film flopped after its theater release on Oct. 4, and grossed only $40 million compared to its predecessor, ‘Joker,’ which pulled in a whopping $96.2 million during its release week in 2019.

Amid the recent movie’s negative reviews from both critics and regular viewers, it’s no wonder the film had a sour debut.

From the film’s title, the term “Folie à Deux,” means “delusion or mental illness shared by two people in close association.” This hints at the relationship between Joker, or Arthur Fleck, once again played by Joaquin Phoenix, alongside his new costar, Lady Gaga, who plays Lee Quinzel, their version of Harley Quinn, a beloved character in Detective Comics (DC).

An aftermath to the original film, Arthur is now standing trial for murder. Throughout the film, Arthur struggles with his dual identity. Unlike the previous film, 2024’s Joker is also a musical.

As the film starts, Arthur is at Arkham State Hospital awaiting his trial, and he’s dealing with events that make him become this shell of his former self. The film progresses, and Arthur catches the eye of inmate Lee Quinzel, and then we’re off on a twisted romance. With this comes the music as Lee and Arthur slip into another reality to escape the craziness of the real world.

Coming out of the spell that Lee puts on him, Arthur tells the jury he is not Joker. Lee and many of the public let the viewers know that they like Artrhur for one thing, being Joker.

The film’s ending has been called anticlimactic, without giving too much away, the end shows Arthur getting a Glasgow smile carved into him. A Glasgow smile is a wound that leaves a permanent scar in the shape of a smile on a victim’s face.

Critical reviews of the film bash it for its musical aspect and its lack of plot. Even the lack of Joker well, being the murderous mad clown Joker people paid to see.

The music is fine, Arthur is using fake scenario performances to find comfort. The vocals by both Phoenix and Gaga are wonderful, though the film’s telling of the story would be better without constant musical interruptions.

Viewers may misunderstand the film because of its slow pacing and lack of plot progression. But that proves the exact point as shown in the film. The audience does not like Arthur for being Arthur, they only like Joker. It needs to be clear, though, that Arthur is not the Joker we grew up knowing as Gotham’s crime king.

Todd Phillips, director of both films, has said “Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that.”

Rather than Arthur becoming the Joker, Batman’s archnemesis, we get a hint of who that will be at the end.

The 2019 film did not need a sequel. The sequel lacked what the original had, which was a sense of audience engagement. Regardless, this film is not as awful as is being portrayed, though it’s also not stellar. Taking the time to analyze it after watching, it is interesting to see how the directors went about this movie and one can come to terms with admiring the story of Arthur Fleck.