Joker: Folie à Deux 2024

Before this film came out I defended it a lot. Joker was a good movie and the fact they decided to make this a musical really interested me. I kept saying that the fact it’s such a weird idea meant that surely they had a really great idea of how to make it work. But the film was released, the reviews came out and I ultimately made the decision to not watch it.  Joker went from being one of the greatest dc films in years to the second one being regarded with the same esteem as Venom: The Last Dance. I betrayed my values and even though I love musicals and the joker I decided not to watch it.  Eventually though, due to boredom, I decided to give it a go and it was alright. Weirdly the singing was actually really good. Lady Gaga is a really good singer, if she took music more seriously I reckon she could be pretty big. In concept a musical about the trial of the joker is actually a pretty cool idea. It being a musical actually makes sense I think too, the whole film is about how he’s insane and he’s finally happy for the first time in his whole life, most of the singing is all in his head and kinda represents his messed up mental state. It’s actually kinda smart and I don’t think this film deserves some of the negativity that it gets. Some of the music scenes were really cool, not just musically but cinematically, the court room song looked really cool and it was the most joker this character has ever felt. Most of my issues with this film come from core problems with even the first film. The character portrayed in the first film isn’t someone interesting enough to watch in a second film for me personally, and I don’t think him and Harley were that interesting in this. I think if this film was about the actual joker and not this weirdo I would have liked it a lot more. I also think the way the first film portrays Gotham was one of the best parts about it and the fact that joker spends the entirety of this film in prison robs it of the opportunity to build on this world more. Also the whole emotional plot with Harley Quinn really didn’t do it for me, neither of their characters were very good but I liked their acting.  The film was a lot cooler than expected though and I liked a lot of the courtroom joker scenes. I also didn’t hate the ending, pretty understandable ending to the joker, I like to think the character at the end is the real joker, Arthur never felt like the real joker, he was just lying to himself and his fans, which I guess is kind the message of this film, which I’m not sure I liked but it’s what I expected due to his character.  7.5/10 Also a Joaquin Phoenix cover of an incredible song by Daniel Johnston called true love will find you in the end plays during the credits. This means nothing but I love that song.