A Take on ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ (2024)
In your face, stumble bums.
It’s fair to say that for many of us, identity lies halfway between the world’s perception of us and our own.
Director Todd Phillips, in his much-anticipated continuation to 2019’s critically-acclaimed Joker, focuses extensively on that fine line. And whereas the first movie seems to concern itself more with the relationship between individual and an uncaring, often brutal society, the second film turns inward. In my opinion, the major theme of Joker: Folie a Deux was the challenging, fragmented self-perception and assessment going through the mind of Arthur Fleck during his incarceration and trial.
Panned by critics as a ‘risky’, ‘controversial’, or even ‘disastrous’ musical flop, the second Joker isn’t the continuation any of us expected. From the trailer and the posters alone, we’re led to expect a true Bonnie and Clyde maniacal type of partnership. Watching the world burn… but together.
The film, however, isn’t that. And despite its extensive soundtrack, it didn’t come across as a traditional musical either, at least for me. Rather, I would argue the musical numbers, while evocative of Broadway, are carefully measured to balance the excessive brutality of much of the film. I wouldn’t say Joker 2 is a musical. Rather, it’s a window into the…
