I waited quite a while to screen Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux because I suspected from the trailers and early critical buzz that it was not a must-see for the reasons most people consider any film to be such, i.e., brilliant execution or daring, artistic vision or Marvel's latest excesses.
Phillips' stylistic mash-up of psychological drama and musical homage is indeed the misfire many people say it is, but it is also enormously entertaining.
It is NOT a work for DC Universe fangirls and boys and will likely disappoint Lady Gaga's legions of admirers (she sings but doesn't belt). But those of us who will go to the ends of the earth to see Joaquin Phoenix do his thing, will relish the work of the master of outré characterizations as he takes us down dark passages as the murderous freak Arthur Fleck a/k/a Joker.
In Folie à Deux, which is introduced by a toe-tapping cartoon reprising the events of 2019's Joker, Phoenix's Fleck is in a desolate prison / psychiatric hospital waiting to be tried for five murders, including one committed on a national talk show. While being escorted to a meeting with his lawyer (Catherine Keener), Fleck meets a young woman named Lee (Lady Gaga), who tells him she was committed after setting fire to her family home.
This moment is not quite "meet cute," but it is nearly staged as such. In fact, Arthur and Lee duet on a dozen or so pop standards and Broadway and motion picture musical numbers, some minimally staged, others more burlesque. I pictured lots of eye-rolling during these scenes, but I thought they were refreshing. (I also thought ABC's experimental police musical Cop Rock from 1990 was pretty bold television.)
Setting aside the movie's musical aspects, one might still find much to appreciate in Folie à Deux's statements about criminality and identity, how society creates demons and what we do with our fixation on fame. It's pretty heady stuff.
As I told the theater manager after today's screening, I could imagine this picture finding life among those who fancy films that are by turns chilling and inspiring, visceral and cerebral, and, well, tuneful, too.
That's Entertainment!
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