Slap on some overdrawn lipstick and bust out that maniacal laugh, because Joker: Folie à Deux has finally arrived in Aussie cinemas, five years after its predecessor took the world by storm.
The sequel, a follow-up to the Joaquin Phoenix-starring original Joker, has been coasting on BBE (big buzzy energy) ever since it was announced back in 2022.
Fans were sent into overdrive when it was revealed that not only was Folie à Deux going to be a musical (like Mamma Mia! if it was set in Gotham), but that THEE Lady Gaga would be co-starring as Harley Quinn opposite Phoenix’s titular supervillain.
Then came the news that Gaga would be releasing a companion album and Little Monsters the world over rightfully lost their minds. All that, on top of the fact that the original Joker was a headline-grabber in itself, means expectations were pretty high going into Folie à Deux.
Now days out from its premiere and the reviews are in, and most critics have (in so many words) labelled director Todd Phillips as the only real clown for even making this movie in the first place.
It currently boasts a lacklustre 39 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes — which is to movie critics what Gaga is to pop music — but let’s start on the more positive side, shall we?
The good
Joker: Folie à Deux received complimentary reviews from The Independent, The Telegraph and NME, which each awarded the sequel an impressive four out of five stars.
NME praised both Gaga and Phoenix’s performances, describing the latter’s as “simultaneously chilling and unexpectedly moving”.
“Lady Gaga is equally good as Harleen,” NME wrote, “sparking palpably insane chemistry with Phoenix”.
Meanwhile, The Independent praised the film’s script for being “just as bleak and formally daring as its predecessor,” and commended its ability to feel like a prison movie, a courtroom drama and a musical all at once.
While The Telegraph said Gaga was “underused” in her role, it nonetheless agreed that structuring the movie as a musical “makes perfect sense”, adding that Phillips was able to “pull it off with glowering resolve”.
In perhaps the most glowing review, Empire praised the “gloriously twisted, darkly funny meet-cute” between Gaga and Phoenix, summarising that while the film’s “kooky approach won’t suit all stripes,” it ultimately “finds a strange, tragic hopefulness all of its own”.
The mixed
It wasn’t all bad news for Folie à Deux, with some reviewers finding it more of a mixed bag.
In a three-star review, The Guardian described the movie as “an improvement” upon Joker, and lauded Gaga’s “sensational acting and musical talent”.
However, while it begins with an enjoyable “structure and flavour”, The Guardian said Folie à Deux ultimately “ends up [becoming] strident, laborious and often flat-out tedious”.
ABC was mostly in the same boat, applauding the movie for “cultivat[ing] a genuine sense of unease” and for touching on complex themes like good and evil, mass media and mental illness.
By the time the curtains were drawn, however, Folie à Deux was altogether “a crashing bore”, according to ABC.
Lots of the reviews that fell somewhere in the middle were mostly complimentary of the score and cinematography, which were described as “beautifully haunting” by The AU Review.
The ugly
It’s been a while since I’ve read reviews quite as searing as those for Folie à Deux.
So plentiful are the critics that I’m just going to rattle off a few colourful descriptions that could just as easily be reads lifted from an episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
According to its many naysayers, Folie à Deux is an “atrociously grim and boring movie” (Mashable), a “dour, unpleasant slog” (The New York Times), an “empty, lifeless and ultimately unnecessary follow-up” (Digital Spy), and a “baffling and boring mishmash of thoughtless platitudes” (Men’s Journal).
Oh, according to Roger Ebert, it’s also “narratively, psychologically, and aesthetically incoherent”.
The broad criticism seems not to be the fact that Folie à Deux is a musical — that’s actually a point in its favour — but that it struggles to justify why it was needed in the first place.
“Here’s a sequel we didn’t need,” ABC News wrote, while Den Of Geek said Folie à Deux is the latest victim of “superhero movie fatigue”.
So there you have it, folks. While it might seem dire for those who were keen to watch Folie à Deux, remember that as the popcorn settles, it’s only your opinion that matters.
My favourite movie is Confessions of a Shopaholic and that suffered a far worse fate than this.
Lead image: Warner Bros. Pictures
The post The Reviews For The Ever-Buzzy Joker: Folie À Deux Are In, So Did It Make A Clown Of Itself? appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
