Joker: Folie à Deux has big clown shoes to fill. After the huge success of 2019’s Joker, the long-awaited sequel is easily one of this year’s most anticipated films.
On paper, there’s a solid recipe for success for Joker: Folie à Deux. Todd Phillips is once again in the director’s chair, with Joaquin Phoenix returning to play Arthur Fleck, the role that won him his first Academy Award. Behind the camera, there are a few familiar faces.
Phillips is joined by Joker co-writer Scott Silver, along with cinematographer Lawrence Sher and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir.
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Joker: Folie à Deux picks up two years after the arrest of Fleck, who is currently awaiting trial in Arkham Asylum. Phoenix is joined by Lady Gaga, playing Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel, a fellow patient at Arkham and Joker superfan. In what passes for a (criminally insane) meet-cute, the two hit it off and begin to fantasise about what their shared life might look like, through a range of classic Hollywood song-and-dance numbers.
Premiering at the 81st Venice International Film Festival yesterday, Joker: Folie à Deux received an 11-minute standing ovation. However, initial reviews among critics for the long-awaited sequel paint a more mixed portrait of the Clown Prince of Crime’s latest adventure.
In a fairly negative take, IndieWire has called the film a “boring sequel that does everything in its power not to amuse you”. Variety’s verdict notes that while Joker: Folie à Deux “may be ambitious and superficially outrageous,” it is also “in a basic way an overly cautious sequel”.
By contrast, it has been praised by The Independent, who are calling it “Just as bleak and daring as the original”. According to The Wrap, “It’s genuinely a little daring, genuinely a little challenging, and genuinely a little genuine”.
You can check out some of the first reactions for Joker: Folie à Deux via X (formerly Twitter) below.
Joker received 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Phoenix winning Best Actor. The film also won the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.
Along with these accolades, Joker raked in over $1 billion at the box office, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time – until Deadpool & Wolverine recently surpassed it.
Only time will tell whether or not this sequel will live up to its predecessor’s success, both critically and at the box office.
Joker: Folie à Deux hits Australian theatres on October 3rd — check out the trailer below.
