Joker: Folie à Deux explodes in box office debut!
Check out our *spoiler free* coverage of Joker: Folie à Deux!
Joker: Folie à Deux is a 2024 American musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay co-written with Scott Silver. It hits theaters on October 4, 2024. Loosely based on DC Comics characters, it is the sequel to Joker (2019), and stars Joaquin Phoenix reprising his role as the Joker, with Lady Gaga joining the cast as his love interest Harley Quinn. Zazie Beetz also reprises her role from the previous film, while Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener join the cast. It is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios in association with Joint Effort.
First things first, this film is a true psychological thriller and not a typical comic based action flick that some may be seeking this time around.
The musical score alone is a perfect 10/10. Gaga and Phoenix’s performance as Harley Quinn and Joker will captivate audiences from the very first moment they arrive on screen. Phoenix is terrifyingly amazing and also stunningly sad as Arthur Fleck. Even his physical transformation is almost too good! The kind of good where you want to look into the actors eyes to make sure that they haven’t lost themselves and become so methodically engaged in a character that they have become tethered to them in real life.
To put it plainly, Lady Gaga and Phoenix are simply masterful! As individual thespians, they are stellar in their craft. HOWEVER, together on screen portraying these two criminally insane star crossed lovers…they are truly exhilarating! It’s like standing in a crowded Parisian street at night amidst the twinkling lights of The Eiffel Tower as a bare knuckle street brawl takes place in the rain. Even though blood is spilling in the streets, the backdrop makes it feel like there is almost something poetic at play. You know that it’s borderline dangerous and definitely unlawful, but you simply cannot look away. On screen, these mentally deranged star-crossed lovers make up a beautiful disaster. Critics and fans alike are surely to highlight their noteworthy performance throughout the film.
This second Joker installment starring Phoenix is more dialogue heavy than action, with a musical heavy set. For the musical sequences, the camera usage creates an opera or vintage Broadway like view as the choreography and music evoke emotions that take the audience on a trip inside the characters mind as their mental and emotional state react to the context of a certain topic in a scene. The cinematography is brilliant and the use of cinematic color palettes are skillfully displayed which set the overall tone and mood throughout the film.
A positive for this film is that the Joker Folie à Deux finds a way to be funny at the most inappropriate times. Which audiences will find enjoyable throughout the dialogue heavy court scenes. The film also does well to take you inside of what its like for someone who is criminally insane. The level of nightmarish it can be to be insane makes this film have a very dark and sinister vibe, which is fitting given that the lead character is The Joker. As the story unfolds, it purposely showcases what it would be like to have a circus in your head for the most emotionally overwhelming moments in your life. This provides a an emotionally poignant and devastating aspect that is relatable to viewers because the knowledge that there are people walking around like this in real life in jarring.
Again, Phoenix is truly captivating and transformation as The Joker! The twisted ending will leave several talking and expounding on what it meant, what it can mean, or what it did mean for days to come.
Joker: Folie à Deux is playing now in a theater near you!