Joker Folie à Deux – Twice the chaos and madness, but half the impact - video Dailymotion

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00:00This is Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Entertainment Editor, Gulf News.

00:09Joker is in love and he is back with a bang.

00:12But the problem is, with the second chapter called Joker, Folly the Do, directed by Todd

00:17Phillips, it's twice the madness, but it does not have twice the impact.

00:22The reason, just hear me out.

00:23What director Todd Phillips has done is that he is given a very dark and twisted musical

00:29kind of treatment to this film.

00:32It's genre-bending and it works to a large extent.

00:35There's one scene that really had my heart.

00:37There's Lady Gaga who plays Harley Quinn called Lee, who is in love with Arthur Fleck, who's

00:45become kind of like a folklore hero.

00:48There are many books written about him, reality TV shows are about him.

00:51He's become kind of like a star around the neighborhood and he's awaiting a death sentence,

00:56a death penalty.

00:58Now he's awaiting trial, but there is Lady Gaga's character who has fallen in love with

01:04the arch villain from Batman.

01:06We like the, you know, initially we love their chemistry.

01:10In fact, there's one scene where the asylum that they both are lodged in goes up in flames

01:15and what you have is them waltzing and breaking out into a song.

01:19At some point, I kid you not, I thought I was in a Bollywood musical, a very dark and

01:24twisted one at that, but it still worked.

01:27But the problem is that director Todd Phillips is not able to make this genre bending work

01:33really work for a long time because I feel he's never truly committed to it either.

01:37Somewhere along the way, it kind of diluted the emotional intensity that the first Joker

01:42had.

01:43One of the reasons why the 2019 Oscar, where Joaquin Phoenix got his Oscar, it worked is

01:52because it truly spoke to us.

01:54It was highly emotional.

01:55It was very gripping in terms of how the system failed Arthur Fleck.

01:59You sometimes wonder, did the system and our failure to address people with mental health,

02:04did we create that monster?

02:07Those very important questions, questions about privilege, class, child abuse are all

02:13addressed and plunge into it, they dig deep into it and therefore the audience is transported

02:18into that.

02:19But with this second chapter, I feel they're just skimming through the surface.

02:23None of these issues are really dug deep.

02:27It's set two years after Arthur Fleck committed five murders.

02:31He's awaiting death penalty.

02:33As he's in the asylum, he meets Lee, who's far more ambitious.

02:38Lady Gaga and both Joaquin Phoenix are brilliant in their roles, but I feel somewhere Lady

02:45Gaga's role was underwritten and she could have done a lot more.

02:48But what I loved about the movie is the gender dynamics.

02:52If you look at it, generally you expect the woman to be the one who's coy, perhaps who's

02:59not hungry for power.

03:00You expect Joker to be in command.

03:02But in this case, you find the sentimental part, the syrupy part of Arthur come alive.

03:08He's found love and he expresses himself through songs of hope and optimism, whereas Lady Gaga

03:14is all about domination and power.

03:16You can see the power imbalance right then and there.

03:20It's also interesting how he's reversed the genders, where you expect the woman to be

03:24the coy one.

03:25She's not.

03:26She wants power.

03:27She's fallen in love with Joker and not Arthur Fleck, the person, the softy.

03:31So it's quite interesting to see that duality, but then the novelty wears off a lot.

03:36Another thing that I loved about the movie is the reality, how Arthur's trial becomes

03:40almost like a reality television.

03:43It reminds you of the spectacle that you see when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were on trial

03:48and their proceedings were caught on live television, almost like you sit it.

03:54It's a testament of today's time where voyeuristic television and salacious TV is kind of very

03:59interesting.

04:00So, that bit as well has been beautifully captured by Todd Phillips.

04:07As usual, Joaquin Phoenix is in top form and Lady Gaga as well, though her role is underwritten,

04:13she does a great job.

04:15The problem is that none of the musicals really work, unless you know the vintage jukebox

04:20musicals from the 80s and 70s, you are unlikely to be really invested in them.

04:25You wonder where this is going from time to time.

04:28Also, you're a bit disappointed because the first movie made you think it was so provocative,

04:35made you wonder whether Arthur Fleck or Joker was truly the villain.

04:39In this movie, you walk away not really understanding what really went there.

04:44Was there a need for a sequel?

04:45I mean some movies are just perfect not being perhaps stretched.

04:50This movie felt very bloated and also it was not as emotionally resonant as the first one,

04:56which is a shame because they had everything going for it.

04:59They had Joaquin Phoenix who is really emaciated, he has physically transformed himself, he

05:04is like one-third the size of what he is, the emotional trauma that he faces as a prisoner,

05:10he is lost, but none of it is really tapped into, we don't get into any of these characters'

05:15heads, which is a true shame.

05:17I've gone with 3 out of 5.

05:19For a full review, go to gulfnews.com.

Joker Folie à Deux – Twice the chaos and madness, but half the impact

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