To some degree an anti-blockbuster par excellence, this much maligned sequel sees the infamous villain navigating a new and treacherous psychological terrain, packaged as an unorthodox if imaginative musical-cum-courtroom drama.

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With the barrage of abysmal-sounding reviews by critics trying to out-write each other with new vocabulary in describing this absolute dud of a film, Joker: Folie à Deux was doomed from the time it world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. 

Coupled with an equally dismal box-office result of just a little over US$200 million in worldwide gross (in contrast, the first film joined the billion-dollar club), any hopes of a third film that might ‘surprise’ are all but extinguished. 

I used the word ‘surprise’ because if anything, a third film could have potentially seen director Todd Phillips veering into another direction we would never have seen coming.  And this is precisely why I find myself liking Folie à Deux, to the extent that I think it is even better than the first film. 

When the dust has settled in the years to come, I think more cinephiles will begin to appreciate what a radical (in the context of the rather conservative Hollywood studio system) work it is. 

Badly misaligned marketing it may have suffered, Folie à Deux is, to some degree, the anti-blockbuster par excellence that gives the average moviegoer an unexpected middle finger—that whatever expectations anyone has had for a sequel featuring one of pop culture’s most infamous villains should just be shoved right into the said person’s ass. 

“This idiot doesn’t deserve a trial. He should be sent straight to the chair.”

Envisioned as a musical-cum-courtroom drama, it is admittedly quite unfathomable that Warner bankrolled it in the first place. 

But when you have Lady Gaga playing opposite the returning Joaquin Phoenix (both delivering standout performances, by the way), the film becomes alive with the promise of psychological possibilities for Arthur Fleck/Joker as he navigates a new and treacherous mental terrain, being scrutinised and celebrated with equal gusto by the public, dealing with the stifling four walls of the Arkham State Hospital, and the sunny prospect of a romantic rendezvous with Gaga’s Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn. 

As such, Folie à Deux is imbued with the prospect of a brighter future amidst very dark, troubling times for Gotham.  The hallucinatory musical sequences, alternatingly counterpointed and integrated within the bleak courtroom-cum-prison drama, offer imaginative solace for the duo. 

With the high-profile murder of CEO Brian Thompson of UnitedHealthCare happening just two months after the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, the film takes on more unsettling real-world meaning. 

Why must it take a killer—alleged, framed or otherwise—to capture the popular consciousness of what is murky and unjust in the world? 

Grade: B+

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