Joker: Folie à Deux Parent Guide

After slaughtering six people, one of them on live television, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) has been taken into custody at Arkham State Hospital while his lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) tries to sort out his legal competency to stand trial. During a musical therapy session, he meets Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a self-confessed psychotic arsonist, and these sweet-hearted star-crossed lovers learn to sing their cares away. While he’s enjoying the throes of young love, Arthur has a problem: His best hope for release is an insanity defense, based on his childhood trauma and elaborate “Joker” persona. But Harley didn’t fall in love with sad, tired, scared Arthur Fleck. She wants the Joker.

The only way I can describe this film is as a crud sandwich without the benefit of bread. I would love to have heard the pitch meeting for this flick. How do you sell the studio a sequel to a dark Taxi Driver-esque thriller which is – and let me just check my notes here – a jukebox musical version of the trial of Charles Manson. This is a ponderously self-obsessed two-hour karaoke playlist of old crooner hits set almost entirely in a penal institution. It’s just as good as that sounds.

I just can’t fathom who this movie is for. The Joker is a chaotic character and having him burst into song for a bit works, and it’s been done before, but dragging it out for over two hours is just cruel. Phoenix spends the movie chain smoking and looking blankly around, and Lady Gaga spends so much time singing that it’s actually hard to judge her acting – you just don’t see much of it.

As far as content concerns go, you’ve got a real buffet to choose from. There’s some full frontal nudity in the psychiatric hospital, sex, stabbings, bombings, shootings, and 69 f-bombs to go with the literally constant smoking. Mind you, it’s not as if this was aiming for a Kid’s Choice Award. Truth be told, I would have taken twice as much of all the negative material if the director had been willing to slash the musical numbers.

I had mixed feelings about the original Joker, but on the whole I thought it was well-made and interesting, despite its flaws. As for the sequel, it leaves you with questions. Mostly starting with “why”. Why was this made? Why did any of these people agree to be in it after seeing the script? Why couldn’t I have been struck by a meteorite on my way into the theater to save myself the two-plus hours I’ll never get back?