Review: 'Joker: Folie à Deux' is a dull wallow that drags Lady Gaga into Joaquin Phoenix's tedious darkness

There’s a dim coldness to director Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” — like a carp flopping in the bottom of the boat — that permeates every moment of this casually cruel and clumsily nihilistic follow-up to the 2019 Gotham-as-cesspool psychological drama that won Joaquin Phoenix his Oscar.

Phillips and writing partner Scott Silver find Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck right where his past crimes left him: Arkham Asylum, taking his court-ordered meds so he can be deemed competent to stand trial for the five killings he committed, most prominently of talk-show host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) live on national television. He spends his days anonymous among the other asylum patients, even though his notoriety has the guards (led by an oily Brendan Gleeson) constantly asking him to tell a joke.

One day, after a visit from his overworked defense lawyer (Catherine Keener), Arthur is being led back to the maximum-security ward and sees a woman in the minimum-security area. That woman, Lee Quinzel (played by Lady Gaga), seems to make an instant connection with Arthur — two kindred spirits who see the madness of the world as more dangerous than the madness of each other. (The movie’s title translate to “madness for two.”)

Here, the shared insanity manifests itself through music. Arthur and Lee begin a halting, unsteady duet on a song like “For Once in My Life” or “That’s Entertainment,” in the dank confines of Arkham — and, within a few bars, their voices firm up, and the “reality” of the asylum transforms into a colorful Broadway stage or a TV studio, and the pair are dressed like movie stars. But there’s no rhyme or reason to the song cues, seemingly chosen less for appropriateness to the story than because Gaga likes the oldies.

Lee gets released from the asylum just as Arthur’s trial is starting, which means Lee gets a gallery seat while Gotham City prosecutor Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) launches into an open-and-shut case of five murder counts. Arthur’s defense, such as it is, is to plead that Arthur’s mind was hijacked by the character of Joker, and wasn’t responsible for his actions. That argument takes on added weight when Arthur, as Joker, decides to represent himself — playing to the gallery and the mob more than to the jury.

The trial’s details cling so tightly to the events of the first movie that there’s no room for this suffocating movie to breathe on its own. How dark and depressing is this movie? Let’s put it this way: If “Seven” had musical numbers, it might get to where “Joker: Folie à Deux” has set up shop.

The only positive note for this movie is Gaga, who fully commits to the bit. She imbues Lee, aka Harley Quinn, with the true-believer zealotry of a true convert. And getting to hear Gaga sing, even in this dispiriting context, is a pleasant experience. 

The worst part about a movie being as nihilistic as “Joker: Folie à Deux” is that it’s boring. Right up to the movie’s final image, nothing matters in a world this bleak — and when nothing matters, why bother watching?

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‘Joker: Folie à Deux’

★1/2

Opens Friday, October 4, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity. Running time: 138 minutes.