"Joker: Folie à Deux" is a masterpiece

October 7, 2024

Courtesy: Warner Bros

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

 "Joker: Folie à Deux," the highly anticipated sequel to the 2019 Academy Award-winning "Joker," premiered on October 4 nationwide. Many speculated that the sequel could not live up to the hype of the first, but it debuted at number 1 at the box office with 40 million domestically and 121 million worldwide.

With a talented cast helmed by Joaquin Phoenix, who returns as Arthur Fleck in the titular role as the infamous Joker, and Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born), who plays Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, his love interest, the film is Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios in association with Joint Effort. Directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay co-written with Scott Silver, Zazie Beetz reprises her role from the first film with Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin), Catherine Keener (Get Out), and Harry Lawtey (Industry).

Real Perspectives first covered Folie à Deux when the trailer dropped in July, causing a social media frenzy, and rightfully so, since the original film was the highest-grossing R-rated film at the time until being surpassed by Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. "Joker" has garnered several accolades, including 11 Academy Award nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, winning Best Actor (Phoenix) and Best Original Score. The original film also won big at the 77th Golden Globe Awards and the 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards that year. "Joker" was a smashing success and one of the most highly acclaimed films of its time, however, if fans are expecting "Joker 3", they will be very disappointed as the ending of "Folie à Deux" does not leave room for further exploration with Phoenix in the role with Arthur dying in a pool of his blood stabbed by a fellow inmate. The ending has fans split on social media for what it means for the franchise moving forward as Arthur, who was a social outcast for his entire life, never got redemption and instead dies a pitiful, lonely death as presumably the young inmate who stabbed him, is the new or actually... the real Joker potentially setting the stage for a new era in the Joker franchise.

Courtesy: Warner Bros

The movie is a flawless masterpiece that will have viewers engaged and talking for a long time. At its heart is a man who was rejected by society and created the persona of The Joker to mask his pain fueled by years of hurt and insecurity from psychological and emotional abuse. The film is ugly, and that's a good thing. Once again, Phoenix has crafted a mesmerizing performance worthy of another Oscar nomination as he embodies the character in all his maleficent glory through victimization that has plagued him like a second skin. The Joker has rebelled against the social establishment. It's not meant to be a feel-good movie but introspective in its truth. Is Arthur a good person? No. But there is something to be said that for all of Arthur's pain and suffering throughout his adulthood, he realized that he was part of the very problem that caused him to adopt The Joker's persona in the first place, desperate to be seen as he used the persona as a lifeline. He was not an icon, and he was not a martyr. He was simply a rejected soul trying to belong in a society that never wanted him. When he thought he finally found a kindred spirit in Lee, he found out she only loved the illusion of The Joker and what his persona represented through violence and mayhem, not Arthur... never Arthur. Once again, Arthur is right back where he started in the first film - abandoned and alone. That realization, crushing in its truth, is some of the best material the show has produced.

The film's musical numbers, led by Gaga and Phoenix while Arthur is in Arkham Asylum, while he waits for trial for his crimes from the original film, heightens the visual representation of what Arthur is and will never be. By the time the film reaches its final act and Arthur is obliged to tell the defining joke in the same manner he asked of Robert DeNiro's Murray Franklin, it was only fitting that the imposter died at the hands of the real Joker, as the young man cut a bloody smile into his face.

We may not get another sequel in "Joker 3," but if the ending is any indication, we have not seen the last of the character.

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Joker: Folie à Deux is currently playing in theaters.

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