Joker: Folie à Deux – The Musical!

By Patrick Lugo and Gene Ching

From the looney (tunes) beginning, Joker: Folie à Deux lets us know that this isn’t your usual comic book movie. In the wake of Joker (2019), this sequel is all about the aftermath. And what a wake. Joker did over $1B in the global box office and won two Oscars, three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes, two Critics’ Choice Awards, and more. Those are big shoes, albeit clown shoes, to fill. Joker: Folie à Deux goes deeper, darker, and more disturbed, plus in a startling shift, it’s a musical.

In many ways, it’s a sequel in the classic fashion; For the most part, society returns in its role as the only villain able to make iconic comic-book arch-foe Joker sympathetic. A bone thin inmate of a Ryker’s Island-style Arkham Asylum, there's nothing glorious about Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck. Instead there’s a body-horror in the character’s physicality that maintains that discomfort even when the character isn’t being actively brutalized by the prison industrial complex. The lead prison guard, Jackie Sullivan, is played by the charismatic yet menacing Brenden Gleason, the first in a lineup of great supporting actors. But this is not a Lovecraftian Arkham. It’s a hopeless and foul prison, set in cement grays and dinge.

You might assume that the French subtitle is just a fancy way of saying ‘part two’ but there’s more to this. So what does folie à deux mean? Pardon our French, but folie à deux translates to ‘madness for two’. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life defines it as follows:

“A relatively neglected phenomenon in the functional psychoses is that of folie à deux, or shared paranoia disorder, - a form of psychological “contagion” in which one person copies and incorporates into his own personality structure the delusions and other psychotic patterns of another person.” (p. 388)

The most commonly cited example of folie à deux is Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Quixote is plagued with delusion and Sancho remains his trusty sidekick, sharing in some of his hallucinatory world. Sidekicks often teeter with folie à deux behavior. Within the DCEU, this phenomenon might be attributed to Batman and Robin. However, Joker and Harley Quinn are the comic epitome of this psychosis.

Folie à deux examples can be found throughout the martial world as well. Whenever any student enrolls under a master, they endeavor to emulate that master as much as possible. This is the fundamental basis of the teacher-student relationship. However, in the martial arts, teachings can extend beyond the techniques of self-defense. Martial culture has baggage that includes an underlying world view, and if that master’s perspective is paranoid, it is easy for the student to fall victim to folie à deux. If the whole school follows, it’s the foundation of martial cults.

Fortunately, most martial arts masters aren’t that paranoid. But once this psychological construct is understood, it explains how cults can emerge. It multiplies from a folie à deux to la folie de beaucoup - the madness of many.

Arthur Fleck or The Joker

Joaquin Phoenix’s take on Joker is the epitome of a paranoid delusion. Phoenix took the comic book character into some fresh dark places. In some ways, his interpretation was darker than Joker’s off-page r*pe of Batgirl (Batman: The Killing Joke, 1988) because it felt more real; a deep dive into mental illness replete with social commentary.

Structured as a series of mostly episodic vignettes, Joker: Folie à Deux has minimal plot momentum. Instead it’s a sort of donut-shaped story, filled either with a visually interesting set-piece or musical number. The supporting actors really are the sprinkles on top, but that’s not to say that the movie has a hollow in its center. It’s more like the movie is in a perpetual state of beginning until one notices an end approaching.

The first act of Joker: Folie à Deux feels like a long series of beginnings. Perhaps director and writer Todd Philips is leaning into the expectations of discomfort from fans unappreciative of musicals as the movie begins. In that way, the choice of an animated sequence is a strong move on the director’s behalf. It’s a clever means of recapping the previous film while motioning towards themes to watch for in his current one. He does the viewer the favor of noting his influences in the background art of that sequence before returning us to his hyper-gritty Gotham City, trapped sometime in the mid 70’s.

The costume and set design builds on that previous success and is now liberated from the need to establish a singular reality. In this way, both are used to reflect the movie’s protagonist - telling the tale of our character all around him. The casting of background characters looks like it's telling a story as well, one less easy to decipher - or maybe that light touch is warranted. It’s probably a coincidence that Catherine Keener was cast as the sympathetic but ineffective public defender Maryanne Stewart. The casting of Harry Lawty as Harvey Dent worked best in contrast to our pitiable antihero. The eagle eyed may enjoy Phillip’s game of spot-the-reference, assuming they are Gen-Xers allowed to stay up late watching variety shows as children.

It will be easy to expect a measure of nerdrage from certain choices made. But the timing for this sequel couldn’t be better. After the box-office flops like Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, both Marvel and DC limited their releases to only one movie so far this year. Curiously both Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker: Folie à Deux are meta-deconstructions of their originating comic properties. Traditional icons like Captain America and Superman return to the screen in 2025 so now is the time for the darkest takes. But many will still balk at the final delivery and the choices made in Joker: Folie à Deux.

Now that Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy director James Gunn is in charge of DC, we can’t quite accuse Phillips of stealing a page from Gunn’s songbook. Unlike the also hyper-gritty but much more grounded The Penguin series, currently on MAX, the music here is more overtly used to evoke emotion. In previous coverage of Harley Quinn we observed the once novel phenomena of a character making the leap from the small screen (TV) to the big one (movies), a line streaming services have now illuminated.

As musicals go, this one is non-traditional. The use of music works more often than not, somewhat dependent on your own familiarity with the original songs or shows being referenced. But here, our director gets to have his cake donut and eat it too because he’s playing loose enough with the different diegetic layers of reality. These songs might be the ones Authur Fleck remembers from his abusive mother. Much of what we’re seeing is signaled inconsistently enough to leave the viewer feeling off-step. One can suppose it’s a way of making you feel as uncoordinated as Fleck does. Especially in contrast to Joker.

Kudos to Phoenix for giving the audience two different characters who are unmistakable, even in silhouette and slow-motion silence. Joker does some Drunken style looking back bends and an occasional high-kick but is clearly more of a dancer while we could see Arthur Fleck’s primary Kung Fu is taking a beating. If anyone could use some lessons in Ditangquan, it’s Fleck.

Lee Quinzel, Not Harley Quinn

In another break from canon, Harley Quinn is refashioned as Lee Quinzel (in the original canon, her name was Harleen Frances Quinzel before she fell under Joker’s folie à deux spell). Clearly a variant of the same character, Lady Gaga also took Quinzel into fresh dark places. Gone is the sexy bubblegum-snapping violence of Margot Robbie’s interpretation of Harley in Suicide Squad (2016), Birds of Prey (2016) and The Suicide Squad (2021). Gaga’s Quinzel is that psycho chick that’s as sultry as she is sinister. Gaga’s ability to portray demented fanatical adoration is impressive, almost as if she’s channeling the character from her hit song ‘Paparazzi.’

And here’s where the musical comes in. In modern musicals, like Bollywood, characters break into song to express joy and sorrow, triumph and loss, and to celebrate. In Joker: Folie à Deux, songs are used to show Fleck’s hallucinatory world. It’s a boldly unorthodox vehicle to present madness. Both Phoenix and Gaga deliver amazing songs, wrought with tortured emotion, and often in a minimalistic style. Gaga only slips into her big concert belting voice a few times. Mostly she’s singing more demurely, almost whispering. Leave it to Lady Gaga to make singing badly still sound good. But she’s also pushing the edge of her vocal envelope again, dropping vintage rock, soul, jazz (sans Tony Bennett), do-wop, and even some astonishingly uplifting gospel.

From the perspective of Gaga’s Little Monsters (as her immense fanbase is known ) Joker: Folie à Deux could almost be viewed as an extended series of music videos. A week prior to this film’s release, Gaga dropped her latest album, Harlequin, which features songs from the film plus two new originals.

Phoenix is no singing slacker, and astonishingly holds his own in duets with Gaga. This is partially due to her generosity as a singer, allowing him to lead as she harmonizes in a manner that elevates his musicality. Phoenix is not a great singer, but like Meryl Streep, he can act like one. And he manages some impressive one-er shots, completing one number in a single swirling shot.

The musical angle will surely draw a lot of haters. Joker: Folie à Deux will make easy fodder for nerdy trolls because it makes some major reaches that many viewers are unlikely to follow. But for fans of the first film, and those Little Monsters, it’s worth seeing (and hearing) it in Dolby sound. The soundtrack is lush, and the gunshots have the impact of a gut punch, as they should. The juxtaposition of intimate music to violent bursts is all the more stark with a proper Dolby sound system.

The World is a Stage

Between the songs, Joker: Folie à Deux sneaks in a lot of social commentary on mental health, the court system, and the news media. It’s not overly preachy, or even that blatant, but evoking folie à deux now, just prior to the US presidential elections, seems premeditated. No matter which side of the political divide you might be on, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life expounds upon folie à deux with disturbing sign of the times:

“Although ideas of persecution predominate, many paranoid individuals develop delusions of grandeur in which they endow themselves with superior or unique ability. Such “exalted” ideas usually center around messianic missions, political or social reforms, or remarkable inventions. Paranoid persons who are religious may consider themselves appointed by God to save the world and may spend most of their time “preaching” and “crusading.” Threats of fire and brimstone, burning in hell, and similar persuasive devices are liberally employed. Many paranoid persons become attached to extremist political movements and are tireless and fanatical crusaders, although they often do their cause more harm than good by their self-righteousness and their condemnation of others.” (p. 388)

Ultimately, Joker becomes a demagogue. Through his defiance and theatricality, he ensnares the minds of Gotham’s disenfranchised and unwittingly sways them to be followers. It’s a metaphor of what can happen when martial arts students place their masters on too high of a pedestal. It’s also a red flag in extreme political movements. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life provides more on folie à deux, and its applicability to present day politics and news cycles is chilling:

“The delusional system is apt to be particularly convincing if one accepts the basic premise or premises upon which it is based. For example, where the delusional system develops around some actual injustice, it may be difficult to distinguish between fact and fancy. As a result, the individual’s family and friends, as well as well-meaning public officials, may be convinced of the truth of the claims. However, the individual’s inability to see the facts in any other light, typical lack of evidence for far-reaching conclusions, and hostile, suspicious, and uncommunicative attitude when the delusional ideas are questioned usually provide clues that something is wrong.” (p. 389)

Reading Deeper into it all…

After you’ve read the titles most frequently adapted into movies: The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween; below as a few lesser known But easily google-able storylines D.C. comics published which have proven harder to adapt for either big or small screen - a distinction that’s not as significant as it once was.

Adam Asylum: A Serious House of Serious Earth

BATMAN: The Man Who Laughed

BATMAN: RIP (Joker at his most Ichi The Killer)

Batman & Robin: Batman & Robin Must Die

JOKER: Last Laugh

More recently, Batman and Joker have been so thoroughly deconstructed that they’ve traded places in more than one instance - comics. We haven’t even touched on the video game and comics feedback loop.

Because these characters have been around for so long and are so mutable there’s a kind of etiquette that’s grown more common in comics. It has to do with writers adopting these characters for either a short, or extended, but mostly uncertain period of time and the possibility they just might make a name for themselves with their groundbreaking take on the characters. Despite all of those radical approaches and interpretations, comics must present the illusion of change while maintaining the kind of consistency that keeps a copyright or trademark in place.

This is seen as putting the toys back in the toy-box for the next writer to play with. It’s something that’s especially important for comics that lean on continuity; this is why Batman will never kill Joker. So it’s at the end when Todd Phillips gets to deliver his punchline, that the director is the most like a comics writer. He wraps up his duology defying expectations while giving us a bonus gritty origin for a foe we didn’t know we might expect and justifying his use of the French in the film’s fraught final moments.

Perhaps it’s a cautionary tale of demagoguery, media influence and cultism. Or perhaps it’s just being observant, a barometer of the times we live in now. One thing is for sure. There will be fan backlash. And there will likely be more Oscar nods. Joker: Folie à Deux transcends the comic book movie genre into art film. But is it what comic fans want?

Ultimately, Joker and Lee Quinzel explain it all with a song.

That’s entertainment.

References:

Coleman, J.C., Butcher, J.N., and Carson, R.C. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. 7th edn. Glenview: Scott, Foreman and Company, pp. 388-389.

About author:

Patrick Lugo is a freelance author, illustrator & comic creator who consults on comic Crowdfunding campaigns when not running one of his own. His latest crowdfunded graphic novel A Tiger’s Tale Volume 2 is currently shipping to fans and will be available for purchase online at aTigersTale.com - if you’d like free comics sent right to your inbox you can also subscribe to PLUGOarts.com.

Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.

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