Joker 2 Reviews Are Mixed, but Sing the Praises of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga

The first Joker: Folie à Deux reviews are in following the DC film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Like a folie à deux — French for "madness for two" — the first reactions to Joker: Folie à Deux are of two minds. The Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-starring semi-musical premiered Wednesday at the 81st Venice Film Festival, where attendees and critics were among the first to see filmmaker Todd Phillips' sequel to 2019's Joker. After the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, touted Joker 2 as "daring," "darker," and "completely different" from the original, the reviews seem to agree: the encore is a mixed bag despite showstopper performances by Oscar winners Phoenix and Gaga. 

Per its official synopsis, Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck/Joker (Phoenix) "institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love in Harley Quinn (Gaga), but also finds the music that's always been inside him." It's a premise that isn't lived up to in the final product, according to Variety critic Owen Gleiberman.

"The letdown of the movie is how little it makes us feel that. There are plenty of scenes with Arthur dressed as Joker, defending himself in the courtroom, singing this or that chestnut, sometimes in fantasy numbers that might almost be taking place in his head. But there's no longer any danger to his presence. He's not trying to kill someone, and he's not leading a revolution. He's just singing and (on occasion) dancing his way into his Joker daydream," Gleiberman writes in his review, adding that Joker 2 is "ambitious and superficially outrageous, but ... an overly cautious sequel."

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney similarly criticizes the "uneven sequel" for "neutralizing" Arthur's Joker, but praised Phoenix's "riveting performance" and the "compelling live-wire presence" of A Star Is Born's Gaga. "Their musical numbers, both duets and solos, have a vitality that the more often dour film desperately needs," Rooney wrote. "Some will complain that Gaga is criminally underused in the movie. But as much as it cries out for more of the extravagant numbers where the singer-actress gets to shine, Lee does have a full character arc. Any more of her probably risked tipping Folie à Deux into a Harley Quinn origin story."

Describing the Joker sequel as a musical "like no other," Deadline critic Pete Hammond writes, "Phoenix knows this character inside and out and in what others might say is a risky proposition, tap dances, sings, and sells this role like no other, if not topping his Oscar winning turn in Joker, at least finding a way to take him in different, wholly surprising direction. Gaga is smartly low key, not the Harley Quinn we associate with Margot Robbie, but her own person, dressed down and believably showing affection and connection with Joker, and more important, the man behind the makeup." 

Critic Richard Lawson, writing for Vanity Fair, describes the "grim sequel" as "startlingly dull, a pointless procedural that seems to disdain its audience," while IndieWire's David Ehrlich agrees that the "excruciatingly boring" sequel "does everything in its power not to amuse you." "Once again, Phillips has made a movie that Joker himself would probably approve of. This time, however, I'm much less convinced that other people will share the same enthusiasm for it," Ehrlich writes. "At no point does Phillips' pleasure-denying concept become sophisticated or rewarding enough to justify the agony of sitting through it."

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TheWrap's William Bibbiani was more positive in his review of Phillips' "impressively odd" musical followup to Joker, writing, "It's a sad, pensive, and impressively odd motion picture that uses the theatricality of movie musicals to undermine its hero's ambitions instead of elevating them." The review concludes that Folie à Deux is "the most interesting film about Arthur Fleck. It's genuinely a little daring, genuinely a little challenging, and genuinely a little genuine. And that's no joke." 

Joker: Folie à Deux is only in theaters October 4th.

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