Arguably the most divisive movie of the year so far has something to say about adoring your idols, for better and for worse.
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Major spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux ahead
They say that one of the biggest crimes a movie can commit is to be boring and leave the audience with nothing to talk about after they leave the theater. If that’s the case, at least Joker: Folie à Deux is succeeding on one front. Sure, the movie has received a critical and commercial drubbing, but it’s also had people debating what exactly this movie is supposed to be. The musical-drama hybrid isn’t afraid to go bold with risks (to admittedly mixed results) as it seemingly looks to do something different: undo the unintended effect of the success of the first movie.
A CLOWN WALKS INTO A BAR
Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck incarcerated in Arkham Asylum following the events of the first movie. He’s set to go to trial for his crimes as his defense prepares the case that Joker is a separate entity that Arthur has no control over. That defense though runs counter to what some see as Joker and Arthur being one, an idea led by Arthur’s love interest, Lee.
This is where the movie makes its big swing as, despite a subtitle translating to shared delusion, it finds Arthur vacillating between being Arthur and being Joker. It’s almost like he’s unsure or even scared to fully embrace the Joker persona, and when he does during the third act, it only lasts for a bit as, following an incident with the guards at Arkham, Arthur breaks.
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know exactly what this scene is about (though the final take in the movie is different)
During the last day of the trial, he renounces the Joker persona by telling the jury that Joker is not some figure in him and he was the one who committed the murders. The trial gets disrupted as a car bomb blows up outside the courthouse, and a dazed Arthur is helped by two Joker devotees.
But as a further push away from the Joker persona, he flees their car and eventually finds Lee on the famous steps from the first movie. What was supposed to be a happy reunion turns sour quickly though as Lee effectively breaks up with Arthur, revealing that her admiration and love were only for Joker. With Arthur pushing that side of him away, Lee had no use for him.
Arthur post-courthearing
The film ends with Arthur back in Arkham sometime later as he’s stabbed in the stomach by another insane inmate. As the camera zooms in on Arthur, who is presumed dead by the movie’s final moments, we see the inmate in the background and out of focus giving himself a Glasgow Smile and letting out a demented laugh you’d expect from Joker.
YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE
With its billion-dollar gross, the first Joker movie in 2018 was a smash success with many fans. Also, in the movie’s universe, Joker has his supporters who praise and admire him for pointing out the system’s flaws. But Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t here to appease those fans, both real and fictional. Instead, it goes daring by depicting Arthur as just a broken man and Joker as an idea he wouldn’t carry.
Arthur soon realized that being Joker wasn’t enough to shield him from the pains of the real world. From leaving the anarchist life he could have had with his followers following the car bombing scene, presumably being killed at the end of the movie, and an inmate seemingly ready to take on the persona of what people think Joker is, the movie is trying to say that Joker, or at least Arthur Fleck, is not the invincible figure you think he is.
Lee and Harley in one of their musical fantasies
Arthur Fleck becomes the butt of the joke at the end as he will be forgotten after his passing, and only the idea of Joker lives on. It can be argued that Lee serves as the audience’s POV, the people who want to see more of Joker and are only in it for the Clown Prince of Crime. Once we learn more about Lee’s background (that she’s actually rich and has a non-abusive father), it ends up becoming less of a romantic relationship and more of parasocial in nature as she pushes Arthur into being Joker. She ends up leaving him after realizing that he isn’t the Joker she thought he was.
All this to say, Lee is delulu and wants Arthur to fully believe the fantasy. But Joker: Folie à Deux shatters that illusion as Arthur, who just wanted to be somebody and be loved, is still a nobody like in the first movie and only Joker the identity lives on for someone else to carry the mantle. The animated sequence in the movie’s opening speaks to this as it finds Joker fighting, and ultimately losing, against his shadow as it tries to steal the spotlight from him and blames him for its crimes. Joker, the shadow, lives free, while Joker, the man, pays for his crimes with blood. Okay foreshadowing.
Fun fact: this scene was cut from the final movie (among the many Lee scenes cut from the final edit)
This movie highkey was not for the fans, and that’s a bold move to make these days. So, does that make for a good movie? Meh. You can’t fault the movie for not playing it safe as so many comic book-adjacent movies have these days as it did try to go there. If the movie wants to say that Arthur Fleck was just step one in what Joker will become in this universe and he’s still ruined by the system, than it can.
But clunky storytelling and messy delivery ultimately hobbled the film as it could have done a better job at trying to say what it wanted to say. Joker: Folie à Deux could have done more with its story because it does take a while to get there. Ultimately, this movie is about pulling the curtain on the perils of sensationalism, but only if how it did so was more engaging.
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