The biggest problem with Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker was in spite of a strong lead performance from Joaquin Phoenix and some powerfully directed moments, it was also completely up its own ass. I can assure you that the solution to that issue was not to make the follow up even more up its own ass, but apparently the studio disagreed. So Phoenix and Phillips (who courted controversy by insisting to long time Batman fans that he was not a comic book guy, and that his Joker was very much a serious thriller) are back with their Scorcese-inspired take on Batman’s most iconic villain, this time bringing along pop icon Lady Gaga in the role of Lee Quinzel (aka Harley Quinn).
Sadly, whatever transgressive aspects of the first movie that *did* work- namely how the beat-down rent-a-clown Arthur Fleck was tormented by abusers, his own mental deterioration and a hunger for public attention from his piss-poor standup comedy, until he lashed out in a killing spree that served as a rallying cry for Gotham City’s other lonely face painted weirdos- most of that’s gone, or at least completely trampled over this go-around. I’m all for creators making the films they would personally enjoy, but Joker 2 goes far and beyond having “the audience come last”, which is what you’re supposed to do. You’re *not* supposed to flat-out assault and attack the audience, my guy!
Much of the narrative revolves around Fleck’s criminal trial where his lawyer (Catherine Keener) is keen, no pun intended, to prove that Fleck’s Joker persona is just a facade for his bad mental health and thus spare him a death penalty conviction. But when Fleck meets Quinzel at a prisoner choir session, suddenly he’s got that old murderous mojo back, and brings back his mad clown identity to represent himself as his own defense.
Meanwhile during the scenes with Arthur mostly moping around Arkham Asylum (which takes up like the first thirty minutes), we see the hostile relationship between Fleck and the half-affable-but-still-corrupt prison guard Sullivan, in an underrated performance from Brendan Gleeson that’s frankly one of the film’s few highlights. He’s got bad jokes of his own and a hidden rage underneath, which left me wondering; why can’t we get a movie about this dude? He’s way more fascinating than almost every other character here.
It pains me to admit this as a loyal Little Monster for years, but Gaga is not well utilized in her role as Harley (though she fared better than Harry Lawtey as lead prosecutor Harvey Dent, who’s given even less to do). This should have been a slam dunk, one can only imagine what kind of interesting take she’d bring to the Quinn character if the production team would just allow it. She’s dynamite during her musical numbers as you’d expect, while Phoenix can at least emote his way through some of his numbers in spite of his total lack of singing ability. The problem is that the songs don’t *add* much of anything at all to the narrative. WB could have cut them out altogether and the overall cohesion of the story doesn’t change, which is NOT what one wants to put forth in any musical. So I’m left with the conclusion that Phillips made that choice simply as a bit of a troll job.
One of the bigger strengths of that first Joker film was how it painted this haunting picture of Arthur as like this infamous American serial killer, who created a chilling piece of NSFL media (almost in the mold of, say, the Budd Dwyer or Christine Chubbuck footage) through the live murder of Murray Franklin, and developed a strange cult of personality around himself. It was far from perfect , but I at least understood what the first film was attempting. Very little of that is shown in the sequel, save for a live TV interview with Fleck (which degenerates eventually into more bad singing) and some of the testimonies during the trial.
But those moments are so slow and dragging that whatever insight they provide is just stunted. When you do courtroom scenes, they’ve got to have some emotion and a sense of urgency, which this film mostly lacks everywhere. Plus since it’s never quite clear exactly what’s supposed to be “real” and what’s actually Arthur’s fantasy, what action we do get often comes off anticlimactic. When Gaga lights her first fire and the two have an impromptu dance number as they attempt to escape from Arkham, I’m like “Finally! Something is happening!” I’m hoping for at least a decent crime spree, but nope, back in the slammer you go. It’s like watching 2019 WWE in how this movie likes to deliberately spite its audience.
So really through most of the film, I’m sitting there in this mix of half confusion and half falling asleep, and as Fleck is grilling one of the characters from the first movie as a witness, I’m just thinking to myself, “why is Joker talking like an old timey racist cartoon?” He keeps harping on about how the name “Puddles “ is supposed to be hilarious, and frankly it really isn’t. If you want to see a better scene involving a funny name, look back to Guardians of the Galaxy 2 when Rocket correctly pointed out the hilarity of a fearsome alien warrior being named “Taserface”. This sequel is so fixated on being off putting and alienating its audience that it drags down any attempts at genuine humor.
Look, I don’t consider myself much of a hate-watcher, I prefer to indulge in things and have fun; hence why many of my reviews tend to lean towards a more positive take- I simply don’t have the time to roast every single turkey that’s been released. I was willing to give Joker 2 a decent shot, as I’ve loved many a film with negative RT ratings and/or have been considered box office flops. This sequel isn’t even “funny bad” like how Batman and Robin was surprisingly a ton of fun in spite of it being totally idiotic. Rather, it comes off like a two-plus hour extension of Fleck’s “eh, you wouldn’t get it” exclamation at the end of the first story. If this was Phillips’ attempt to thumb his nose at the “Joker is so sympathetic and he did nothing wrong” crowd, he really could have picked a more entertaining route to convey such a message.
So yeah, I’d say skip this one. This movie took a potentially intriguing twist on an iconic comic book baddie and totally fails to capitalize on the successful elements from the first attempt. There’s nothing here that makes me think this frown of a clown doesn’t deserve to be taken downtown to the slammer. Until further notice, Heath Ledger’s Joker (who was both scary and, at points , actually funny) remains the best live action incarnation of the character, who because of overexposure we often forget that he can be a very intriguing character when he’s written properly, which this film definitely isn’t.
But what did you think? Did you love it, hate it? Offer your opinion, as always, at FAN’s social media spots and let us know.