Joker: Folie à Deux
Five years back, during the Venice Film Festival, and in connection with “Joker”, I managed to get genuinely angry and offended, and made sure to express that anger and offense read some readers too quickly, in a hasty review. (Later I learned that, indeed, I should have felt anger in the first place: five hours more after I posted my notice a review embargo was still in force.) To avoid any revealing of plot hints, I did not disclose the actual cause of my resentment against the film.
However, the feelings were stirred chiefly by the film’s conclusion where death was everything for Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). Arthur is now quite thoroughly “Jokerd” and is about to appear on Murray Franklin’s late night talk show (Robert De Niro). His purpose is to lampoon the man made up as a clown. “But enough of this hand wringing!” Arthur thinks and, suprisingly, Takes the stage-introduced gun and kills Franklin on TV.
This upset me in quite an unexpected way and there was also a reason – I was pretty sure that this particular story point was probably taken from the 1987 television suicide of a Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer. The images of him wanting to shoot himself were, of course, omitted in the TV news, but I was in the right position in the field back then, so I managed to see the raw version of the video. And even now, it just seems to me that I should not have seen it. The first thought that came to mind was how very similar, but not absolutely identical, that which Todd Philips presented and what happened in real life, was most likely not so by accident. I thought that Phillips and Phoenix (and De Niro too for that matter) have engaged in opportunistic nihilism that I would call unforgivable.
So there you have it, on the off chance you were wondering. In my review I stated: “‘Dark’ is just another junk poured with today’s mainstream movies. It’s no different than ‘edgy,’ it’s a marketing option which can be injected into one’s targeted market and gives value for incorporation in comic book genre.’”
And now I am back on the Joker case as the second installment “Joker: Folie a Deux,” a movie you have probably heard about and is a musical sing, and written and directed, just like in the first part, by Todd Phillips. Phillips did not pen the melodies, which is good. This is mostly a jukebox type with music from The Great American Songbook (“Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”) and 1960s international pop music “To Love Somebody” written by the Bee Gees and recorded by Janis Joplin and so on. And the best thing I can say about this production is that it obviously does not put marketing as one grasps it in today world.
However, before we discuss the rationale for turning the second “Joker” opus in a musical direction, let’s admit that at least in theory there is a sound justification. That is, Arthur Fleck, who makes a sharp difference between himself as a civilian and an individual who puts on a “mask” in the way of a “Joker” contempt, is a rather troubled person that could somehow most certainly think of himself as living in some sort of drama. So, we can accept the filmmakers have sincere intentions when they present the work as a musical. They do this as it enables them to get out of some otherwise desperate situations. The film has weak narrative structure, poor behavioral motives and shallow aesthetic concepts. Still, it can slide into the first two categories because of the genres of the screenplay, which genre allows one to have the most flimsy narratives and psychological plausibility musicals.
The plot, as if it were needed, occurs in what can be described as the very short chronological lapse after what can only be referred to as the appalling act of murder which concluded Arthur Fleck chronological laps after what can only be referred to as the appalling act of murder which concluded sanctimonious fantasy story of Joker. Arthur/Joker is locked up in one of the basement of Arkham (Gotham’s equivalent of Belmarsh) laundry or a musical box filled with Mad Hatter minions and when he walks to meet a guest he sees a lady who is not afraid to make eye-contact with him while regaining her voice in one of those chambers. Arthur’s lover Lee Quinzel (fans of DC comics might be frustrated since they never show her becoming Harley Quinn) and the two look for opportunities to spend time together, maximal before Arthur is locked up for the Anton’s upcoming trial. They seem to be really impressed by the performance which towards the end make you doubt your abilities to pay attention and appreciate nuances. And about him, Joker. What a twist, I’m in love.
The events revolving around the trial and touchy feely moments shared between Arthur and lady Gaga are the focus here. There are times when there are skits such as Jock’ impersonation of Southern accent and lawyer that would have been cool but in all probability slotted them into what appears to be the 8th, 9th or even 10th hour of the film.
What’s astonishing with the movie is that it ends up offering the same kind of nihilistic slop story as Phillips did in the first “Joker,” just twisted around with the genres.
Some early critiques have argued that the movie does not present too much of a “Joker Fan Service”. This sigh of complaint makes me laugh a little; I know, it is a character, who is undeniably a pop culture phenomenon and fiction one at that, but when it comes to how can the term be diamond, what is it that the fans of the joker would want “fan service” for? “Charles Manson Fan Service” – I do not see why not. What a sick as well as an unnaturally violent world that we live in.
The one other thing about the film that I am prepared to speak in warm terms about other than its disregard of any potential target audience is, surprisingly, that of performance. Both Lady Gaga and Phoenix obviously made efforts to ensure that their character and the way they relate to each other has some depth. The differences of performance modes they utilize while singing, for example, are ordinary and trivial when in their “real life,” but when they are in their shared fantasy, they belt out like true professionals. While Gaga manages to hold on pretty well throughout the movie, Phoenix’s talent in the end disintegrates into a form of self centered show off (the idea behind Phoenix’s ostensible Joker “dance” is that he is ready to stretch before doing yoga). Though it is today, for what it may be.
Also, Watch On Putlocker.