In 2019, Todd Phillips’s revisionist DC comic book movie Joker ignited a firestorm of controversy , broke the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, and ended up winning its star Joaquin Phoenix a Best Actor Oscar. Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, an aspiring stand-up turned psychotic killer, was an everyman antihero for our times – a stumbling loner who murders a celebrity chat show host live on air, develops an army of twisted devotees and sparks mass riots. The film was accused of glorifying violence and potentially endangering the public – Phoenix notoriously stormed out of a British newspaper interview when asked whether Joker could inspire mass shootings.
Those hysterical predictions didn’t actually come to pass, though. Today Joker is best remembered as one of the most subversive and original films of the last decade, while its hugely anticipated sequel Joker: Folie à Deux is just as bleak and formally daring as its predecessor. Folie à Deux picks up shortly after the first film, with Arthur now locked up in Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum.
He is pitiable, emaciated and heavily medicated into submission. The question of whether he is mentally fit enough to stand trial fuels the plot: ambitious district attorney Harvey Dent ( Industry ’s Harry Lawtey ) wants him prosecuted; Arthur’s kind, solicitous and vaguely maternal lawyer Maryanne Stewart (indie stalwart Catherine Keener) believes he deserves sympathy. Throwing a cat among the pigeons is Harleen Quinz.