Movie Review: Folie A Deux Is A PERFECT SEQUEL
When he wanted to be loved, we made him a joke. When he wanted to be feared, we made him a god. In the end, Arthur Fleck was never allowed to be human being, and Todd Phillips serves a surprising ending/ sequel to the story of Arthur Fleck/ Joker that I KNOW audiences will love or, at least, be inspired to dissect: just like the first film.
Out October 4th, Joker: Folie A Deux is a perfect sequel to Joker when we remember two things. The first is that it was an intelligent analysis on the growing meanness of society and critics hated it. This follow-up does the same in both ways. Arthur is locked away, and we find him quiet, decimated, and completely in his head. To the world, he is a symbol/ anti-hero of a long-debated question: do we need a violent revolution? Sure, Marie Antoinette did not deserve to die, but she was never going to share cake with the poor. In a world, where we watch the elite get wealthier, and seemingly colder/ crueler to the cries of many, Fleck became an embodiment of what they all wish they could do to their bullies: kill them. Yet, he was also a severely abused, mentally ill man that when that side of him ws portrayed, he became the joke.
Joker thrived in showing the elite a sort of risk-factor they happily ignore to watch their Met Gala edits: we notice what they have, we realize we gave it to them, but some people do not mind going over barricades to get it back. That, in some ways, is what Joker did for Arthur: he got his power back to him by making him a symbol/ a god, but Fleck really just wanted to be a person. The problem is people are unsafe, in part, because they are endangering. His humanity
no longer wanted to be punched by others but was also unenthused to punch anyone. Phoenix could never be a bad actor, and he elaborates beautifully, especially via his singing, that Arthur is someone who wants to be loved. He never got a chance to be safe, healthy, supported, and protected: Joker was an act of rebellion against those that made sure he never got that chance. Yet, the world wanted the act to continue, and that world was embodied by Lady Gaga’s Lee.
Gaga get Monica Bellucci´d a little bit. Just like Dolores in Beetlejuice, Gaga’s Lee feels like the mort important person to not be important. She moves the storyline and is certainly impactful with exceptional talent, but you cannot help but feel her role is unnecessary and could have be filled, in storyline, by an extra. At the end of the day, we come for Phoenix, and oddly Gaga, despite her excellent performance, gets in the way: feeling more like a storied inconvenience that happens to push the craved growth we want from Arthur. Her love for Arthur is really for the Joker, and it wormholes Arthur into a battle of existential euphoria and extinction. Now, he is catering even to an alter ego the world gave him, and his first love is not even in love with him. Arthur remains invisible and would live his entire life unseen. Seeing him reach this ultimate epiphany was incredibly enlightening and rushed.
The movie lands on, what some say, is a controversial ending, but I do not think so, at all. This was a Joker not for DC but for the people. He was going to live and die in our theater, which is the ultimate message. If in Joker, the wealthy elite are the reason poor men like Arthur are ensnared and erased, our fanaticism over their mental breakdowns and decision to violently fight back is not helpful either. We support them when they make suffer those that make us impoverished, but what about before that extreme: when they need medication, psychiatric help, or just friend. Where are were then?
