JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024)

Destined to go down as the most disappointing high profile sequel since EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC/’77 (out four years after the game-changing original), Todd Phillips’ D.O.A. semi-musical continuation of what had been Hollywood’s all-time top grossing R-rated pic (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/04/joker-2019.html) wouldn’t have come as a surprise to many in the biz.*  The story’s simple enough: while in looney prison awaiting trial on past murders & mayhem, Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) buds up with fellow psychopath Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) to bill & coo . . . in song.  Mostly American Songbook classics and ‘60s ‘Pop,’ delivered in what might be called ‘half-integrated’ style.  It’s like a cross between what worked so well in PENNIES FROM HEAVEN/’81 with lip-synched period recordings, and even better this same year with vocalized transgender mob story EMILIA PÉREZ, which gets almost everything right this film gets wrong.  A triumph of execution.  This was the stylistic choice everyone (including upset audiences) jumped on as the key to this film tanking.  But it’s not.  The problem was that the ultra-violence that sold five years back was happening ‘for real’ within the framework of that story.  Not so here, where, with the exception of an explosive finale, all the gory thrills occur in dream sequences Joker wakes up from.  Nothing happened, folks.  It’s as if Phillips didn’t understand his own concept.    . . . oh.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:   As mentioned above, PENNIES and EMILIA PÉREZ/’24.  OR: Play movie sleuth since while Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER/’76 was the obvious takeoff point for JOKER, hard to say what Phillips was riffing on here.  Perhaps Brian De Palma’s crazy-fun freak show PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE/’74, where there's actually a Batman-worthy villain made with the help of a vinyl L.P. press machine.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/11/emilia-perez-2024.html    

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *More likely, the dismal reception was welcomed as a control lever against Phillips (and others), returning balance of power to the studios.  Pricey, but worth it.