'Joker: Folie à Deux' is a punchline to a joke that wasn't funny.

Joker 2 Bad Ending Run (4K60)

You know how certain video games have Bad Endings where the main character ends up in the worst case scenario and suffers a really grim fate and you’re left wondering what you did wrong — where you made a wrong choice?

That’s Joker: Folie à Deux.

At the end of the it was left asking one question: who is Todd Philips mad at, exactly? The audience? Joker fans? The studio? What? Was he forced to do this movie at gunpoint? I don’t get it.

In the lead-up to this movie I was watching the early reviews like a hawk and things were not looking good. Joker: Folie à Deux was one of the most anticipated movies this year. A sequel to a movie that everyone fell in love with 5 years ago and the subject of endless memes. What if, the Joker, but he was bullied and mentally ill?

America is a country that is deeply selfish and self-absorbed. Maintaining a maddening and suicidal attitude of “fuck you, got mine” and “everyone fends for themselves”. 5 years ago the world was dealing with a pandemic that very quickly highlighted the flaws in those beliefs — one of which manifesting in what happens when a society decides it’s fine to gut and strip down of various types of social and health services. Arthur Fleck was the victim of a system that clearly had abandoned him. He was struggling to hold down a job, dealing with a medical issue that few cared to empathize with, and faced constant abuse. Arthur watched all the avenues of assistance in his life disappear and was pushed to the breaking point — later enduring scolding from those who faced none of the struggles that he did, acting shocked that anyone in Gotham could even slightly emphasize with Arthur and the way he felt.

What made Joker (2019) captivating was that Fleck’s struggles, while violent, weren’t unrelatable. The years between 2019 and 2021 were fucking crazy. Between the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the storming of the capital building it felt that society was coming to some kind of breaking point. What was clear is that people were struggling, angry, and fed up — and tired of pretending like they weren’t. Even if you didn’t fully agree that Fleck is some kind of hero for “rising up against society” or that he didn’t have to resort to violence or whatever you think about the first movie one thing is clear: Philip’s Joker movie could not have hit at a better time.

Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t the worst movie ever of all time. People online love to exaggerate. At least a full on bad movie would be interesting. Unfortunately, it’s “ok” at best and pretty boring at worst.

I had no real issues with the musical numbers. There may have been one or two instances where the movie could have done without them, but it was fine overall. I don’t think it overwhelms the movie or any dialogue too much. Here I will defend the movie — I keep seeing stunned reactions at the fact that this is a musical. How? We have been hearing for two years now that Joker: Folie à Deux was going to be a musical; how on earth did anyone miss that? The only explanation I can think of would be if you heard “Joker 2” and immediately stopped listening right after.

Phoenix and Gaga weren’t bad either. He’s a great actor — his performance in Joker was outstanding — and she’s (shocking!) a great singer. I had no complaints about their acting or anyone’s acting for that matter.

But God, did it get frustrating watching Phoenix’s Joker get abused over and over. Who gives a fuck about judges or courtrooms or parole officers? I was sitting there begging that someone or something — anything! — got shot or bombed or whatever. This is the fucking Joker, after all. I get that the last movie was was Taxi Driver x Joker, but this is the sequel. Time to pick up the pace!

What makes gets is that since the movie’s release Philips has had the audacity to act like the audience just doesn’t understand what he was trying to do in this sequel. Claiming in one interview:

“He’s always been Arthur Fleck: he’s never been this thing that’s been put upon him, this idea that Gotham people put on him, that he represents. He’s an unwitting icon. This thing was placed on him, and he doesn’t want to live as a fake anymore — he wants to be who he is.”

I’m sorry, but I don’t really buy this explanation. I would respect him more if he just admitted that he just wanted to piss off the types of people who liked the first movie or took the wrong message from it or whatever. Okay! Fine! Whatever! Fans and haters alike don’t deserve shit. However, to act like everyone just didn’t “get” what wasn’t there in the first place is really insulting.

If the point of Joker: Folie à Deux was to highlight how we build up heroes and icons — imposing our feelings onto them so that we can latch on and distract ourselves at what is happening around us — then it’s a gigantic shame it was attached to a movie that so deeply missed the mark.

This movie had incredible potential to blow everyone away with a deep message that could have resonated with what Philips was trying to do, but it failed in such a way that practically no one is leaving the theatre happy. Not fans, not haters, not casual movie goers, not anyone.

What a joke.