Rating: 1.5/5

With the billion-dollar success of the first ‘Joker’ movie, it’s safe to say that fans were expecting a sequel no less deserving of another Oscar. At the face of the movie-musical ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is a star-studded duo: Joaquin Phoenix reprising his role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, along with the addition of Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn. However, perhaps the overwhelming praise for the first movie acted as a double-edged sword; with standards set so high, it became a challenge in and of itself for the sequel to reach that caliber of quality, let alone exceed it.

This may explain the utter failure of the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’. The musical element was what stood out as a bold creative decision to me at first glance. I assumed it was an attempt to think outside of the box, testing the limits of traditional moviemaking. It seemed a promising idea, considering past examples of masterfully done musicals such as ‘La La Land’. On top of that, Lady Gaga, a renowned singer and talented actress is at the center of the story, which leaves lots of potential for her forte to be utilized. However, I found myself skipping past nearly all the songs, impatiently clicking the ‘skip ahead 10-seconds’ button each time Lee or Arthur broke into song (and yes, I may or may not have pirated the movie after hearing scathing reviews, sue me). Though each song lasted at a minimum of two minutes and there were at least ten songs throughout the movie, I’m convinced my lack of being present for them had little effect on my understanding of the plot. To put it bluntly, the little snippets of the songs I did listen to sounded virtually all the same and have little to no catchiness that musical songs that work do. But what may have bothered me the most may have been the fact that the characters themselves acknowledge they are in a musical. Musicals are supposed to be the one medium where characters ease in and out of song, blending the borders between dialogue and verse. However, this musical felt weirdly self-aware, with multiple characters pointing out the lunatic that just belted out singing, or a character literally telling another to “stop singing and talk to me”.

The movie also just made me feel like it was trying to rub in my face that the plot and meaning of the story was a secret that nobody except itself could know. Whether it was Todd Phillip’s attempt to get excessively psychological or just bad screenwriting, I was close to clicking off the movie multiple times throughout, simply because I had no idea what was going on. In the end, I was all around bewildered –  at the absence of a plot, at the unnecessarily disturbing scenes, and at the lack of realistic character development. I mean, for a movie that was centered around two characters, neither of them or even them as a couple had an arc of any sort. Lee is an intriguing character, and I did find myself questioning her motivations at some point, but her plot line is almost entirely dropped by the end and overshadowed by her joint fantasy/delusion with Arthur. Plus, she just leaves at the end, which seems extremely out of character, given how much she was willing to give to feed her and Arthur’s delusions. Arthur also falls flat as a character and his immediate shift and acceptance of his true identity as the Joker felt rushed and boring.

I think the movie attempts to touch on deep psychological aspects of mental illness and how one can spiral by being enabled by another, but it feels badly executed and instead simply comes off as disturbing and unrealistic.

Overall, if I had to describe this movie in three words, it would be nausea-inducing, disappointing and convoluted. I think it’s safe to say that after this epic fail of a sequel, we’ll likely not be seeing a third ‘Joker’ in the works anytime soon, which very well may be a blessing.