Joker: Folie a Deux tries to be many things. It tries to be a musical, a courtroom drama, a reflective character study, a comic book film, and yet it fails at being any of these

Instead, it is an empty reflection on the first film and the cultural significance surrounding it that is too afraid to do anything new with the material. 

If there is one thing that you may have already heard about this movie, it’s that it is a musical. This announcement garnered a mixed reception around the film community, with some questioning how seriously they could take the film. 

This announcement made me a little excited. I wasn’t crazy about the first Joker movie, which is a pretty by-the-books crime movie in my opinion. This change in direction seemed like a fun idea to delve into the wacky psyche of the character. 

However, it is a musical in the thinnest sense of the term. What makes musicals great is that a particular song can clue you into what a certain character is thinking, giving context to the rest of the movie and making it a richer experience. 

The musical numbers in ‘Joker’, though, are bland and uninspired. The songs don’t give us a new perspective on any of the characters and since they are all classic, public-domain tracks they fail to say anything specific about the Joker or Harley Quinn and instead boil down to general ideas about love. 

How does a movie that has Lady Gaga playing the second protagonist have lackluster music? 

Fearing alienating part of its audience, the film then devolves into a boring cookie-cutter courtroom drama where the Joker reflects on his actions in the previous film. The plot stagnates as it meanders in the courtroom and doesn’t offer anything new and instead reignites themes from the first movie. 

I found myself asking, why does this movie exist if its sole purpose is to remind me of a different, better movie? 

The film is extremely lucky to have two extremely talented actors in the lead roles, because without them I believe that it would be much worse. Both Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn bring so much to their roles even if they aren’t given much to work with. 

There are a few standout moments where it leans into its wackiness, like the beginning segment, and those are the best moments of the film, but in total Joker: Folie a Deux commits a cinematic cardinal sin: being boring.