Director Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker was that rarest of films: A billion-dollar grossing box office smash that was also a hit with the critics and even earned leading man Joaquin Phoenix a Best Actor Academy Award . Five years later, and the sequel Joker: Folie A Deux , which adds Lady Gaga into the mix as the Joker’s love interest Harley Quinn, is debuting to a very different reception. It’s received a critical mauling, and currently has a score of 48 out of 100 on review aggregation website Metacritic, based on 35 leading reviews.
That puts it below even Francis Ford Coppola’s poorly-received recent flop Megalopolis, with a score of 55. Of course, many a critically slammed film has found huge success with audiences, but there are numerous reports on social media from viewers claiming people booed and even walked out of their screenings of the film – some of whom, apparently, never got the memo that this Joker film is also a musical..