On Friday, Oct. 9, 2024, I went to the Rialto Cinema in El Cerrito, CA to watch Joker: Folie à Deux. I didn’t have high hopes for this film, as I heard nothing positive about it, but I entered the theater with an open mind hoping that it wouldn’t be as bad as many had described to me.

I walked to the concession stand, purchased one ticket, ordered a (stale) popcorn and cherry Coke, and walked to my assigned theater. It was empty, so I had an infinite number of seats to choose from. I was spoiled for choice. In the end, I sat towards the back, right in the middle of the theater.  

Minutes passed and one other person entered the theater. As the lights began to dim, there were three people besides myself in the theater, all eager to see how Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix would perform. 

The film began with a Looney Tunes-inspired cartoon short titled “Me and My Shadow”. This short focuses on Arthur Fleck and his alter-ego, his dual personality, the Joker. The Joker is represented by Arthur Fleck’s shadow.

Arthur appears as a celebrity about to perform a live show at the Franklin Theater in Arkham when the Joker, personified as Arthur’s shadow, separates from him and locks Arthur in a wardrobe. As he makes his way onto the stage, the Joker assaults a woman and breaks the hand of a gentleman backstage. We cut to Arthur escaping from the wardrobe, then the Joker on stage about to perform an original song “What the World Needs Now Is Love”. Cut back to Arthur, he walks onto the stage in nothing but his undergarments and tries to stop his shadow from stealing the show any further. 

I enjoyed this short, but I was deeply displeased as soon as the film cut to live-action. The beginning moved very slowly. A big heavy metal cell door opens revealing a despondent Arthur lying silently on his bed. Security enters the small concrete room and one asks, “Got any jokes for us today, Arthur?” Arthur sits staring blankly at the guard. They pick him up from his bed and guide him toward the communal restroom to clean himself up.

There are a few entertaining moments in the film, like the scene where Harvey Dent is seen on the news being interviewed by journalists and mentions wanting to try the Joker’s case again. Not that it was a joyous moment, but we saw more action, more movement from the characters, and most importantly from the Joker. As I said before, this movie had very slow pacing and it really picked up after this scene. Joaquin sang “For Once In My Life”, which despite the very sad meaning behind it, was still a nice performance.

There weren’t many musical scenes despite this film being a musical. Sort of ironic, isn’t it? There were some very depressing scenes, but also some much less. All in all, I would rate the Joker: Folie à Deux  a 6.5 out of 10. I would watch it again if nothing else was playing on TV, but I will not be purchasing another ticket and will just wait for it to come out on Netflix.

The actors’ performances did not disappoint. Joaquin Phoenix was the correct choice for the Joker, in my opinion, and did an excellent job at portraying the character despite the crappy script handed to him. Lady Gaga did good as well as Harley Quinn, and it was refreshing watching a new and different take on the character. 

TLDR; Not bad, I would recommend.