‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Review: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Star in a Cracked Jukebox Musical — but It Doesn’t Let Joker Be Joker Enough
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Todd Phillips’ desperate-to-be-darkly-irreverent but actually rather clunky and earthbound musical sequel to “Joker,” Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), the sad-sack incel who turned himself into a homemade psycho-killer version of Joker, is about to go on trial for his crimes.
In theory, this would seem to be a good thing, since Arthur doesn’t get out much. At Arkham State Hospital, he lives in a small grimy cell from which he’s released each morning so that he can skulk down the corridor with his bucket of pee and pour it into a sink.
Arthur is now skin and bones, his face creased with despair. The guards, led by the jaunty sadist Jackie (Brendan Gleeson), keep asking him, “You got a joke for us today?” But Arthur is out of jokes, and out of smiles.
He’s back to being a paragon of miserablism. Of course, he is also now famous — so famous for killing the late-night talk-show host Murray Franklin on live television that they actually made a TV-movie about him. “Everybody still thinks you’re a star,” says Jackie.
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