What If Joker: Folie à Deux Is … Good?
Lady Gaga has turned this sequel into something bizarrely appealing.
I’ll just say it: Joker: Folie à Deux seems like it could be a good movie. If its predecessor was a testosterone-heavy fever dream of violence and weird three-piece suits, the sequel looks kind of like if you gave musical theater kids the budget of an edgy superhero reboot (I mean that in the best way). The reason, I can only assume, is Lady Gaga, who appears in the film as Harley Quinn in one of the more confusing choices of her acting career thus far.
Gaga’s presence in Joker: Folie à Deux may have been shocking at first, disturbing second, and alarming third, but I have come around to it, and now that the movie has given us two trailers, I am convinced she has elevated this franchise from incel-fest to quality entertainment. The audience for this won’t just be straight men — their pop-loving girlfriends will be in there, too. With that in mind, though, I would like to know more. How much screen time will Gaga get in this movie? Will she be singing? (She’d better be singing.) Did Bradley Cooper bring some makeup wipes to set? Let’s unpack what we actually know about this (maybe good??) movie.
What is Joker, and is it just for incels?
We have to back up a little here for context. In 2019, Joaquin Phoenix starred in a gritty, heavily stylized interpretation of the Batman villain’s origin story. If you can believe it, this was before “gritty” was a word commonly ascribed to superhero movies, so it was kind of a big deal. At least some people found it a home run — Phoenix won an Oscar for his performance as the titular Joker. (The movie also took home the Academy Award for Best Original Score.) Also widely lauded for its appearance in Joker: stairs. Not since Rocky has a set of steps gotten so much attention, though this specific staircase was in the Bronx, not Philly. The stairs may or may not come up in the second movie, so keep your eyes peeled.
Joker’s release caused some controversy — because it’s a popular character among incel communities, and the movie took a somewhat sympathetic look at his backstory, there were widespread security concerns about mass shootings, and the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater where 12 people were shot and killed during a 2012 screening of The Dark Knight Rises chose not to screen the film. In the end, no violent incidents were reported during screenings, and Phillips and Phoenix both made it clear they were tired of being asked about it.
Okay, so how on earth did this sequel happen?
Phillips has repeatedly said that Joker was not designed to have a sequel. But after the movie’s runaway success — and the fact that it exists in a notoriously franchiseable universe — rumors quickly started swirling. Phoenix was already talking about reprising the role while doing press for the first movie, though Phillips denied that anything was in development. Three years later, in June 2022, he announced he’d written a script with his collaborator from the first movie, Scott Silver, accompanied by a photo of Phoenix smoking a cigarette while reading it. Very Joker (I think).
Who’s involved?
Obviously, Phoenix is reprising his titular role of the Joker, a.k.a. Arthur Fleck. Gaga, who met Phillips while he was producing A Star Is Born, was reported to be involved mere days after news of the movie’s development broke. (This was when it was first reported that the film was, nightmare of all nightmares, a musical.) A few months later, the film officially announced Gaga and Phoenix as the leads, accompanied by an old-timey graphic that threatened quite a bit of singing and dancing.
Joker: Folie à Deux
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) August 4, 2022
10.04.24 pic.twitter.com/obp7T9lBFL
Also in the cast: Zazie Beetz, reprising her role from the first movie as the Joker’s neighbor Sophie Dumond, and a handful of new faces including Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Industry star Harry Lawtey in what is apparently a “big” role.
What’s the plot?
At the end of the last movie, the Joker killed a popular late-night host on live TV, landing him at an asylum for the “criminally insane” called Arkham State Hospital. (The movie was criticized for its treatment of physical disabilities.) In this movie, he will meet a music therapist who works at Arkham named Harleen Quinzel (Lady Gaga), soon-to-be Harley Quinn. They fall in love and also experience a shared delusion, known in psychology as, yep, folie à deux, that, I guess, lead them to think they should commit more violent crimes. Meanwhile, Arthur’s fans — he has become something of a martyr to the downtrodden, elite-hating residents of Gotham — hatch a plan to break him out of Arkham, and he and Harley begin to build their crime empire. Throughout all of this, he appears to be participating in his trial for killing that guy on live TV. (This may or may not turn out to be one of those shared delusions.)
And you’re telling me this is … a musical?
Oh, mon dieu, yes. In August 2022, when Variety reported Folie à Deux involved “complicated musical sequences,” the idea of extending this extra-dark version of Gotham into showtune-land seemed deeply cursed. Things got even bleaker when someone leaked footage of Lady Gaga singing a Judy Garland song a cappella in a choreographed number on the famous Joker stairs.
But now? Now that Gaga is waltzing around in the midtown rain to the tune of Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You”)? Maybe I just needed the extra polish of the trailer, because I am strapped the fuck in. It’s still unclear just how much the movie is leaning into this impulse — insiders have claimed it’s “mostly a jukebox musical” and involves covers of over 15 “very well-known” tracks with the possibility of some originals. Judy Garland popped up yet again in the newest trailer, which also featured a version of Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life,” so I, for one, am sensing a theme.
How committed is Gaga to this thing?
No one commits to talking about committing to a character like Lady Gaga. Already, she has declared that her singing in Joker is “unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” Apparently, in order to sound not like a pop star but like a downtrodden psychotherapist turned supervillain sidekick, she deliberately inserted “bum notes,” made her “breathing different,” and focused on “removing my perceived art form from it all.” Yes!!!!
When can I start processing the full thing?
Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters October 4 but first will first premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. You may recall that the last time Gaga launched a film at Venice, she arrived via water taxi smelling a single red rose. How does a woman who treats her press tours like monthlong performance-art pieces debut a movie that looks a lot like a performance-art piece itself? I hate to say this, but I can’t wait to find out. As long as it doesn’t involve those goddamned stairs!!!
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