Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) institutionalised at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.

Todd Phillips’ Joker was a monumental cinematic achievement, a modern-day masterpiece of narrative, performance, atmosphere, and score, which earned rave reviews and a dominant box office gross of over $1 billion dollars. It was a film that took the greatest supervillain of all time, The Joker, and reinterpreted his character and psyche in a radically different way, leaving audiences stunned. Now, five years later, Phillips returns to continue the story of Arthur Fleck/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix), a mentally unstable and severely damaged individual whose actions unleashed chaos on the streets of Gotham City, manifesting the presence of sheer anarchy in Joker. Where 2019’s Joker was a dark and nihilistic thriller of the birth of a villain, Joker: Folie à Deux is a spinning, whirling, and bright piece of musical theatre character study. Audiences are pulled deeper into Arthur’s twisted and scarred psyche as Gotham City braces for the trial of the century, and many layers and subtexts are explored in a film that channels ‘Singing in the Rain’ by way of ‘The OJ Simpson Trial’, with the narrative leading to plenty of unexpected moments.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a character study presented as a musical, allowing audiences to delve into the fractured mind of Arthur Fleck (Phoenix). Arthur, now confined to the hell of Arkham Asylum, has become a macabre celebrity as his trial date approaches. Through the use of music, singing, and dance, the chaotic presence of Joker emerges, providing an examination of these two unique characters. Phillips finds a mix of psychological complexity and off-kilter comedy in the narrative, not to mention its lavish musical numbers, which all add to the texture and feel of the story. He also continues to build on his radically different version of Gotham City, 1984, with the environment of Arkham Asylum serving as its own character and bringing out Joker’s twisted personality. Additionally, characters like the ambitious and showboating Harvey Dent, Gotham’s District Attorney, add to the complexity of the movie, shedding light on the deeper layers of Arthur Fleck’s character.

For his performance in Joker, Joaquin Phoenix was granted an Academy Award, and most deservedly so. As the frayed, tormented, mentally disturbed and psychologically violent character, he presented an incredible take on one of pop culture’s most fascinating and unique villains. It was a performance of sympathy and malice, derangement and terror, and we witnessed the actions of a fractured soul that led to the rise of pure chaotic anarchy in a single moment of violence. Now, through the medium of song and dance, audiences are taken deeper into Fleck’s mind in Joker: Folie à Deux, and Phoenix is given room to play as only he can. Within this film, Phoenix taps his inner Fred Astaire, and his all-singing, all-dancing fantasy illusions bring out the presence of the snappy and malicious Joker, his shadow self, and this is contrasted with his waking form of the beaten down and mentally unstable Arthur. Phoenix dwells deeper into these two distinctive personalities, and we get a real character study of each personality, leading us to who the real Arthur Fleck truly is.

Injecting a dose of crazy into Joker: Folie à Deux is the presence of another seminal DC character, Harley Quinzell, portrayed here as Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a fellow patient of Arkham Asylum who becomes infatuated with Arthur and who leads him down a path of madness of her own construction. Gaga inhabits Lee with her peroxide blonde hair, crazy cat-eyed stare, and bombastic personality and exudes a sense of compulsive, antisocial and narcissistic traits that gift her with a penchant for arson and a desire to cause as much trouble as possible. She has a penchant for toying with people and has an almost Charles Manson-like grip over Arthur’s emotions as she coaxes further chaos out of Arthur in the form of Joker. Her presence not only amplifies the actions of Joker but also keeps the audience off guard when it comes to the film’s narrative, leading to plenty of surprises.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a significantly different cinematic experience compared to the first Joker film, as it is set up as a musical. Drawing inspiration from the classic musicals of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Todd Phillips and his team utilise elaborate set dressing and big band settings to delve deeper into the chaotic fantasy world in which Joker exists within Arthur Fleck’s mind. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga deliver compelling singing and dancing performances that evoke a mix of Sonny and Cher meets Bonnie and Clyde, reflecting their co-dependent mania. Cinematographer Lawrence Sher skillfully captures the oppressive world of Arthur with its sickly palettes of greens and yellows, as well as Joker’s vibrant world of red, orange, purple, and teal, creating an immersive cinematic experience for audiences. Additionally, Academy Award winner Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score expands the ambience of the film, infusing it with tension through sinister chords.

Thematically Joker: Folie à Deux delves deeper into the themes introduced in the original Joker, while also explores new ideas surrounding identity and fantasy. It takes the audience further into Arthur Fleck’s troubled mind, highlighting the extent of his fractured psyche. Audiences get to peer into the confrontation of the ego and ID of Arthur and Joker, as this film seeks to answer the the question of: Who is the real Arthur Fleck? Through its exploration of identity and reality, and the inclusion of elaborate fantasy scenes that reveal Arthur’s true self, Joker: Folie à Deux offers a textured and complex character experience that will captivate audiences seeking a deeper understanding of the character.

Joker: Folie à Deux is a film that swings for the fences with its narrative, and it’s a film that genuinely takes audiences by surprise. What we get is a loud and colourful musical experience that reveals the true character of a villain, and it offers an interesting point of view that makes for an unexpected yet intriguing picture.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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Now Phillips and Phoenix are back for the much-anticipated sequel, Joker: Folie À Deux. This time, they’re bringing along multi-talented singer-songwriter and fellow Academy Award winner Lady Gaga for the ride. The result appears to be a highly taught and incredibly creative musical-crime opus that will completely shake up audiences.

Watch the all-new trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) institutionalised at Arkham Asylum, and awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love (Lady Gaga), but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.

This new trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux is utterly sensational in its production and follows on from the pulse-pounding teaser trailer, and it sets the stage for something completely unexpected. Having caused a large-scale riot and being implicated in multiple murders, Arthur Fleck, better known as Joker, awaits the ‘trial of the century’, and unexpectedly falls in love with a musical therapist of Arkham Asylum, Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), who is carrying her own sense of derangement, and their crazy love is sure to spell disaster for Gotham City.

The new trailer does not provide any sense of narrative direction or specific plot points. Instead, it focuses on mood and tone and captures the anarchy that swells up around Arthur and Lee as their insane love for each other boils over. Phillips himself brings an incredible level of grandeur to the project, and the prevailing narrative has an almost ‘OJ Simpson trial meets Singing in the Rain‘ quality.

What is clear is that Phoenix, the Academy Award winner, has completely folded back into the skin of Arthur Fleck. With his gaunt frame and the gleam of madness behind the eyes, he’s ready to make a complete show out of his trial and ignite a new fire through Gotham. Audiences will also be given a special treat as Phoenix will engage in both song and dance as his already fragile psyche cracks even further, and this new narrative device will lead to a real surprise for audiences.

Sharing in Arthur Fleck’s madness this time around in Joker: Folie À Deux is Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a music therapist who is drawn to Arthur while he is incarcerated at Arkham Asylum and who stokes his madness and anarchy… and the fire that spreads. Gaga truly revels in the glee and insanity that follows Arthur, and her dark intentions are slowly revealed as the trailer progresses. While Phillips has been coy on the characterisation of Gaga’s Lee, and her purpose in the narrative, he has described her as being an almost ‘Charles Manson-esque figure’ to Arthur… and this can certainly only more chaos awaits in Joker: Folie À Deux.

Joker: Folie À Deux appears to be an utter spectacle. With its bold vision, unique handling of a classic villain’s mythology, and sensational song and dance numbers, it will be incredibly memorable to watch when it arrives in cinemas on October 3.

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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